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PLATE DLXXXV.
S O P H O R A JAPONICA.
Japanese Sophora,
CLASS X. ORDER L
IxECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Ten Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX 5-dentatus, superne gibbus. Corolla papilionacea
: alis longitudine vexilli. Lomentum
moniliforme.
CUP five-toothed, swelling above. Blossom butterfly
shaped, with wifigs the length of tha
keel. Pod necklace-shaped.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
SOPHORA foliis pinnatis : foliolis pluribus oyatls
SOPHOKA with wiiiged leaves : the leaflets numerous,
glabri&i caule arboreo. Willd. Sp. PL
ovate, and smooth stem arborescent..
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2 . The vexillum.
3. One of the alae.
4. The carina.
5. The chives.
6. The seed-bud and pointal..
SOPHORA japónica is the largest species- of that genus at present knowni The specimen exhibited is
from a tree more than 4 0 feet high, in the collection of John Ord, esq. at Purser's Cross, Fulham, which
was planted by himself about fifty years ago. Our attachment to even the inanimate companions of
our youth, and the pleasure we derive from them, are thus beautifully expressed by one of our English,
poets (Cowley, we believe) :
" A wood coeval with himself he sees y.
And loves his old cotemporary trees.""
Mr. Ord obtained his plants of Mr. Gordon, nurseryman at Mile End, who introduced' the specieS'
from China in the year 1753. The first time of its flowering in this country, we learn, was- in his
Grace the Duke of Northumberland's collection at Sion, in August 1797. The only figure we haveseen
is in Jacquin's Hortus Schosnbrunnensis, vol. iii. Burmann, in his Flora Indica, and after him-
Linnffius, describe the flowers as white. In Mr. Ord's garden they are of a faint yellow, as in the
figure of Jacquin ; and in the specimens which we have seen from Sion House, faint yellow tinged
•wiih purple. Excellent in the study of flowers is the maxim of Virgil,
Nimiixm-ne crede colori."
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