CUNNINGHAMIA
- Zelkova,1 Spach, in Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 2, xv. 356 (1841) ; Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 353 (1880); Nicholson, in Woods and Forests, 1884, p. 176.
- Abelicea, Reichenbach, Consp. Veg. 84 (1828) ; Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 224 (1904).
- Planera, Gmelin, subgenus Abelicea, Planchon, in Ann, Sc. Nat. sér. 3, x. 261 (1848).
Decidiuous trees or shrubs, belonging to the order Ulmacee. Branchlets slender, distichous. Leaves alternate, distichous, simple, shortly stalked, penni-nerved, crenately serrate. Stipules in pairs, membranous, lanceolate, caducous.
Flowers monœcious; corolla absent; calyx, four- or five-lobed. Staminate flowers, clustered, two to five together, on the branchlets below the leaves or in the axils of the lowermost leaves; disc absent; stamens, four or five, with short, erect filaments and exserted anthers; ovary rudimentary or absent. Pistillate flowers, solitary in the axils of the uppermost leaves; disc cupular, fleshy ; staminodes present or absent; ovary sessile; styles, two, stigmatiferous on the inner side; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit, a small drupe, sessile, subtended by the persistent calyx, subglobose, oblique, veined or rugose on the surface, crowned by the remains of the styles, persisting as two minute beaks; with a membranous or slightly fleshy outer covering, and a thin, hard endocarp or stone, containing a compressed, concave, horizontal seed, without albumen. The fruit ripens late in autumn, and persists on the branchlets till the following spring.
In Zelkova no true terminal bud is formed, and the tip of the branchlet falls off in early summer, leaving a small circular scar at the apex of the twig. The base of the shoot is ringed with the scars of the inner scales of the previous season’s bud, and shows, as a rule, a few of the outer scales persisting dry and membranous. The buds, all axillary, and composed of numerous imbricated scales, are often multiple, two being then developed, side by side, in a single axil. The leaf-scars are narrow, crescentic, and three-dotted ; with a linear stipule-scar on each side. In Ulmus the buds are single in the axils, and none of the scales persist at the base of the shoot.
Three species of Zelkova? are known to exist in the wild state, two of which are large trees well known in cultivation, Z. acuminata, Planchon, a native of China and
1 The name Zelkova is sanctioned, and Abelicea rejected in Actes Congrès Internat. Bot. Vienne, 77 (1906).
2 Hemiptelea Davidii, Planchon, Compt. Rend. Acad. Paris, xxiv, 1496 (1872), a thorny tree, occurring in northern and central China and Korea, is united with Zelkova by Bentham and Hooker, in Gen. Pl. iii. Pp. 353. It differs from that genus in having winged fruit, Cf. Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 224. This species does not appear to be in cultivation in Europe
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