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40 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
It has been known to the Chinese from the earliest times, and has been always
named by them the Huai tree. In the Chou Li, a Chinese classical book, dating
from several centuries before the Christian era, it is mentioned as having a place in
official audiences. In front of the high officials were placed three Sophora trees,
beside which stood the counsellors. It was also used as firewood, and was planted
in cemeteries, being the tree prescribed by law to be planted beside the tumulus,
4 feet high, in which officials of low degree were buried. The tumulus of the
emperor was 30 feet high, and around it pine trees were planted. Feudal princes
were honoured with cypresses; and common people were only permitted to have
willows around their tombs. The Sophora was also used medicinally from the
earliest times in China, the flowers, fruit, bark, and root being all employed. In the
Erh-ya, the oldest Chinese dictionary (twelfth century B.C.), the Huai tree is called
the guardian of the palace ; and it is said to open its leaves by night and close them
by day. The text is probably corrupt, and the periods of expanding and folding of
the leaves are reversed. This is perhaps the first reference in any literature to the
phenomenon of the sleep of plants. The term guardian of the palace no doubt refers
to its use in official audiences.
With regard to the uses of Sophora in China at the present day, in addition to
its ornamental character as a tree planted frequently in the courtyards of temples, it
is also of considerable economic importance. In commerce the flower-buds (Huai-
mi, huai-kua, huai-tze), and pods (huai-chio, huai-shih) are met with everywhere ; but
considerable confusion has arisen in books as to the exact uses of these products.
Shirasawa (I.e.) is inaccurate in stating that the Chinese use the bark to dye paper
and cloth of a yellow colour. Mouillefert 1 says the leaves are used for dyeing ; but
this is also an error. The facts are simple : the flower-buds are used as a dye, and
the pods as a medicine.
The flower-buds, as seen for sale, are mixed with stalks, etc., and are evidently
collected when quite young as they are only about ^ to \ inch long. They are oval
and pointed at the stalked end, dark greyish in colour, and tasteless. When immersed
in water they impart to it a fine yellow colour. These flower-buds, packed in large
sacks, are exported in considerable quantity from Shanghai and Tientsin. Consul
Meadows in a letter to Kew gives an account of the process of dyeing, which is one
for dyeing blue cloth a green colour rather than for obtaining a yellow colour. 2
Debeaux 3 asserts that the buds are moistened with water, and a quantity of common
salt is added; the mixture is then put in a press, which squeezes out a liquor with
which cotton or silk may be dyed yellow. He adds that the leaves do not contain
any yellow colouring matter.
Every part of the tree abounds in a purgative principle; and it has been
asserted that it is dangerous to work with the wood when it is fresh, owing to the
1 Mouillefert, Traitt dcs Arbrcs, 629.
2 The process, according to Meadows, is as follows : " To dye a piece of cotton cloth of narrow width (i^ feet) a thousand
feet long, a mixture is made of 42 Ibs. of Sophora buds, 8 Ibs. of alum, and 666 Ibs. of water, which is boiled in a large pot
for six hours. In Chekiang both cottons and silks are first dyed a light blue, and are then put in the mixture just described,
and all is boiled over again for three or four hours ; the cloth is then taken out and dried in the sun. It is afterwards boiled
and sun-dried once or twice again, according as a lighter or darker tint of green is required."
3 Debeaux, Note sur qudqucs maticres linctoriales dcs chinois ( 1866).
Sophora 4 1
distressing symptoms which ensue; and turners of the wood suffer especially. The
active principle resembles the cathartine which occurs in senna leaves. In the
botanical garden at Dijon there is a well beneath a Sophora tree, and when its leaves
or flowers are about to fall the gardener covers the well, having found by experience
that the water acquires laxative properties by the infusion in it of the Sophora leaves
or flowers. 1
The wood, according to Shirasawa (I.e.), differs remarkably in the colour of the
heart-wood and sap-wood ; the specific gravity is in dry air 0.74. It is tough and
durable, though light and coarse grained; and the annular layers are marked by
broad bands of open cells. In Japan it is used for the pillars and frames of their
wooden houses, but is not of sufficient importance to have been included in the
Japanese Forestry exhibit at St. Louis, nor is it mentioned in Goto's Handbook of the
Forestry of Japan as a valuable wood.
INTRODUCTION
Petiver 2 (1703 or a little earlier) speaks of " Hai-hoa, Chinensibus, flore albo,
siliquis gummosis articulatis" evidently the Sophora, and it is probable that the
specimen was collected in the island of Chusan by Cunningham in 1700.
Desfontaines, 3 quoting Guerrapain,4 states that the tree was first raised in Europe
from seeds sent by Pere d'lncarville (a Jesuit stationed at Peking) in 1747, the first
trees being planted at the Petit Trianon by B. de Jussieu. It was unknown to what
genus the tree belonged, until it flowered near Paris in 1779. It was introduced in
1753 into England by James Gordon, a celebrated nurseryman at Mile End. 5 Mr.
Nicholson obtained from Mr. James Smith, former curator of Kew Gardens, some
interesting details concerning the Kew trees. Five plants were early planted at Kew,
all of which were still there in 1864, but two no longer exist. One of the three
trees remaining is near the rockery ; not far off is the famous specimen in chains, while
the third tree is in the village at Kew beside the house once occupied by Mr. Aiton,
the first director of the Kew Gardens. These three trees, according to Mr. Nicholson, 6
are probably as old as any existing elsewhere in England. There is, however, another
tree at Kew beyond the Pagoda of which there is no history.
CULTIVATION
Sophora japonica is an ornamental tree, the peculiarities of which make it
interesting. The leaves are dark, glossy green, of an unusual tint, and the younger
branchlets are of the same colour. The leaves fall very late in autumn, and keep on
1 Loudon (ii. 564), quoting from Duhamel, states that the bark and green wood of this tree exhales a strong odour
which produces on those who prune it a remarkable effect. A plank cut from a tree at Kew in Elwes' possession shows a
hard, compact, yellowish brown wood.
2 Petiver, Musei Petiveriani Centttria; decent rariora Natures continens, No. 930 (1692-1703).
3 Desfontaines, Histoire des Arbres, ii. 258 (1809). * Guerrapain, Notice sur la culture du Sophora.
6 Hort. Kew, first edition (1789), ii. 45. In Andrews Repository, ix. 585, there is a figure of a specimen from a tree
40 feet high in the collection of John Orel at Purser's Cross, Fulham, which was planted by him forty years before. Ord is
stated to have received his plants from Gordon, " who introduced the species from China in 1753." It is also stated that the
Sophora first flowered in England at Syon in August 1797. Loudon, however (Joe. cit.), states that " the oldest tree near
London is at Purser's Cross, where it flowered for the first time in England in August 1807."
6 Nicholson in Woods and Forests ( 1884), p. 500.
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