inches long. Male catkins, arising as in P. stenoptera; scale glandular, four-lobed; stamens six to ten. Female catkins 8 inches long; bract minute, bracteoles oblong and longer than the style, perianth with four subulate lobes, Fruit: catkins a foot or more in length; nut with conic beak-like apex; wings linear-oblong and erect,
The above description applies to the form in cultivation, which is also common in the wild state. The species is, however, very variable as regards the amount of pubescence, the twigs being often glabrous and the leaf-rachis only slightly pubescent. In many wild specimens the wing of the rachis is very slight.
This species is readily distinguishable in summer by the winged rachis of the leaf. In winter the twigs are slender and covered with a rusty-red bristly pubescence; but in other respects resemble those of P. caucasica. The buds, more slender than in that species, but similar in structure and position, are greyish in colour.
This is a common tree in the central and southern provinces of China, extending in a slightly different form into Tonking.[1] It is usually met with in the plains and low hills, along rivers and water-courses; and never grows to be a large tree. It is recorded from near Moukden in Manchuria, where it was collected by James; but was probably only cultivated there. It is usually called ma-liu[2] by the Chinese; and is much planted in the streets of Shanghai, where it is often called "Chinese ash" by the European inhabitants. As the climate of the regions where it grows naturally is very different from that of England, it is liable to be injured by spring frosts, and fails from want of heat in autumn to ripen its wood. The timber is considered in China to be of little value.
The tree was introduced into Europe apparently by Lavallée, who received the seeds from Siebold, about 1860. It supported at Segrez very low temperatures in 1870 and 1871; but succumbed during the severe winter of 1879-1880. Lavallée considered it to be about as hardy as the common walnut.
The only specimen that we have seen in England of any size is at Tortworth, where Elwes measured in 1905 a tree 32 feet high by 2 feet 3 inches in girth, believed by Lord Ducie to have been planted about twenty years. It is in a shady and sheltered valley and produced small racemes of fruit in 1905. (A.H.)
