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446
The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
3. Cladrastis amurensis, Bentham et Hooker. Amurland, E. Manchuria, Korea, and Japan.
Shoots pubescent. Leaflets nine to eleven; deltoid, ovate or oval; obtuse or acute; densely appressed pubescent; calyx four-toothed.
4. Cladrastis Tashiroi, Yatabe.[1] Loochoo Islands.[2]
Allied[3] to C. amurensis, but always a small shrub; with smaller leaflets, acute and not truncate or rounded at the base as in that species, glaucescent and scarcely pubescent beneath. Flowers and pods also smaller; calyx five-toothed.

CLADRASTIS TINCTORIA, Yellow-Wood

Cladrastis tinctoria,[4] Rafinesque, Neogeniton, i. (1825); J.D. Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 7767 (1901).
Cladrastis fragrans, Rafinesque (name only), Cincinnati Literary Gazette, i. 66 (1824).
Cladrastis lutea, Koch, Dendrologie, i. 6 (1869); Sargent, Silva N. America, iii. 57, tt. 119, 120 (1892), and Trees N. America, 568 (1905).
Virgilia lutea, Michaux, Hist. Arb. L'Amér. iii. 266, t. 3 (1813); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 565 (1838).

A tree attaining 60 feet in height, and rarely 12 feet in girth. Bark smooth and silvery grey. Branchlets brittle, glabrous. Leaves (Plate 125, fig. 5) alternate, unequally pinnate, 8 to 12 inches in length. Leaflets seven to nine, usually alternate; the terminal one largest, articulate and directed to one side, often broadly rhombic; the others gradually diminishing in size towards the base of the leaf, 3 to 4 inches long by 14 to 2 inches wide, on stout pubescent petiolules, oval or ovate, entire and non-ciliate in margin; base broadly cuneate or rounded, apex acuminate; upper surface light green and glabrous; lower surface pale green with occasional hairs on the midrib and veins. Rachis of the leaf terete, glabrous, with the base swollen and hollowed out, enclosing the buds, which are usually four, the largest and uppermost one developing, the others minute and rudimentary.

Flowers in nodding terminal panicles, 10 to 20 inches long, white, with a yellow spot at the base of the standard. Pedicels slender and not grouped in pairs. Calyx canpanulate, enlarged on its upper side; teeth five, short, obtuse, nearly equal. Corolla papilionaceous with clawed petals; standard nearly orbicular; wings oblong and two-auricled at the base; keel-petals free, oblong, and sub-cordate or two-auricled at the base. Stamens ten, free, Ovary linear, stalked, villose; ovules numerous. Pod glabrous, short-stalked, linear, glabrous. Seeds four to six, attached by slender stalklets, oblong-compressed, without albumen.

  1. Tokyo Bot. Mag. vi. 345, t. 10 (1892).
  2. Cf. Ito and Matsumura, Journ. Science College, Imp. Univ. Tokyo, xii. 436 (1899).
  3. Judging from the description, as I have seen no specimens. There are specimens in the Kew Herbarium (Cladrastis, sp.? Hemsley, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxiii. 201 (1887)) which were collected by Millett, probably in the vicinity of Canton, which are very near to the Loochoo species.
  4. This name is adopted as being the first one with a description published under the correct genus.