94 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
long pendants of yellow flowers, have been used in England 
for many years, where they are so popular that they are 
found in almost every garden. 
The plants brought to St. Louis were forced into bloom in 
the greenhouse and subsequently placed outside for the sum- 
mer. Because it was not anticipated that they would prove 
hardy in this climate, they were stored in a cool greenhouse 
during the winter, but the following year they remained out- 
side for the entire twelve months, being protected only by 
a lath house. There being no sign of winter killing, a further 
test was made in the spring of 1921 when both trees were 
permanently planted in the shrubbery border west of the rose 
garden. The following spring both plants flowered profusely. 
This past winter, when so many so-called hardy shrubs were 
frozen back to the ground, was a particularly severe test upon 
the laburnums. However, neither plant was seriously dam- 
aged, only the tips of some of the branches freezing back 
eight or ten inches. With the copious rains of this spring, 
the old branches produced abundant new wood during the 
summer. 
In view of the unusually severe conditions to which the 
plants at the Garden have been subjected during the past 
three or four years, it would seem safe to recommend this 
most beautiful of the small flowering trees for the gardens 
of St. Louis and vicinity. 
The laburnums, of which there are three species, natives of 
southern Europe and western Asia, grow from twenty to 
thirty feet high and have dark green trifoliate leaves which 
fall in late autumn without changing color. While they pre- 
sent a neat appearance throughout the year, the long droop- 
ing racemes of yellow flowers which hang from the small 
branches in the spring are their chief attraction. Planted 
in distinct groups in separate locations instead of dotting 
them about haphazard, they are a most pleasing addition to 
the landscape. In association with dark-colored foliage, such 
as the copper beech, they afford one of the most satisfactory 
combinations which can be devised for this sort of planting. 
The genus is rarely seen in the Middle West because it is not 
regarded as capable of standing the extremes of temperature 
