It was introduced into Kew Gardens, where there is a small tree about 15 feet high, by seeds sent from Peking by Bretschneider in 1882. It had, however, been previously introduced into France by Pére David, who sent seeds to Carriére in 1868, from which a tree was raised in the Jardin des Plantes. This tree, according to Franchet! had become with age identical in character with C. Bungeana; but this is incorrect. It fruited for the first time? at Paris in 1894. Schneider’ mentions trees of this species in the Botanic Gardens at Strassburg and Darmstadt. (A.H.)
CELTIS OCCIDENTALIS, Hackberry
- Celtis occidentalis, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1044 (1753); Michaux, Hist. Arb. Am. iii. 225, t. 8 (1813); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1417 (1838) ; Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vii. 67 (in part), t. 317 (1895), and Trees N. Amer. 299 (1905) (in part).
A tree, attaining in America, 100 feet in height and 9 feet in girth. Bark grey, broken on the surface into appressed scales, and often roughened on old trees with thick discontinuous corky ridges. Young branchlets glabrous or pubescent. Leaves (Plate 267, Fig. 4), uniform in size, about 21⁄2 inches long and 11⁄4 inch wide, ovate, unequal and rounded or shortly cuneate at the base, with a long caudate-acuminate usually non-serrated apex; serrate in the upper half or two-thirds; upper surface smooth to the touch; lower surface pubescent on the nerves; petiole 1⁄4 inch or more, glabrous or pubescent. Fruiting pedicels short, about 3⁄8 inch. Drupe, purplish-black or orange when ripe, globose or ovoid, about 2⁄5 inch in diameter.
In winter the twigs show the following characters :—Branchlets slender, zigzag, reddish-brown, shining, glabrous. Leaf-scars oblique on prominent pulvini, three- dotted. Stipule scars minute, linear, one on each side of each leaf-scar. Terminal bud not formed, the end of the branchlet falling off in summer, and leaving a minute orbicular scar at the apex of the twig. Buds‘ all axillary, uniform in size, about 3⁄16 inch long, alternate, distichous, appressed to the twig, ovoid, acute, com- pressed, covered by three pairs of pubescent, ciliate, imbricated scales.
Seedling.’—Primary root long, tapering, flexuose, with numerous lateral fibres. Caulicle erect, pubescent, about 11⁄2 inch long. Cotyledons oblong, cuneate and three-nerved at the base, emarginate at the apex, green above, pale beneath, about 3⁄4 inch long. Stem hispid. First pair of leaves opposite, ovate, acuminate, serrate, three-nerved, covered in the young stage with clear dot-like glands. Succeeding leaves similar, but alternate.
Scarcely any varieties are known, unless C crassifolia be considered a geographical form of this species. C. pumila, Pursh,® a low shrub, of xerophytic
1 Plante Davidiana, i. 269 (1884).
2 Rev. Hort. 1894, p. 97.
3 Laubholzkunde, 228 (1904).
4 . Sometimes in this species, the axil of the leaf produces three buds side by side. The middle bud sends out a shoot in the following year, whilst the lateral ones are left as a reserve. If the shoot happens to die in the year after, one of the two accessory buds develops. Cf. Kerner, Nat. Hist. Plants, Eng. transl. ii. 32 (1898).
5 Cf. Lubbock, Seedlings, ii. 493, fig. 646 (1892),
6 Fl. Amer. Sept. i. 200 (1814); Hill, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, xxvii. 496 (1900).
