376 



ARBORICULTURE 



nearly as large as those of specicsa, while 

 others greatly vary in size. 



Whether large, upright forest treee are 

 obtained, or crooked dwarfs, will depend 

 upon the care used in selecting trees from 

 which to collect seed. 



The following peculiarities of the trees 

 should be observed and differences noted : 



1. There is no one feature so important 

 as to secure seed from trees of upright 

 habit. True catalpa speciosa is as dis- 

 tinctly upright as is the Lombardy poplar. 

 It is only necessary to see the photographs 

 shown in many numbers of ARBORICUL- 

 TURE, which were taken from natural 

 groves, both in the forests or slashes and 

 out in the open ground, to know the habit 

 of this tree. 



One may as well expect to produce Nor- 

 man or Clydesdale horses by breeding 

 Shetland ponies, or heavy Durham cattle 

 from Jersey stock, as to anticipate grow- 

 ing forests of catalpa where seed of dwarf 

 trees are planted. 



The matter of first importance, there- 

 fore, is to secure seed from tall growing, 

 straight trees, and upon such trees but a 

 small quantity of seed will be found, and 

 which is expensive to collect. 



Oriental forms of catalpa seldom exceed 

 twenty feet in height. Bignonoides has a 

 spreading, very crooked and irregular 

 habit, and possesses far less vitality or 

 stamina than does speciosa. 



2. The next important means of identi- 

 fication is in the bark of the trees. Spec- 

 iosa should have a thick, heavy bark, 

 deeply furrowed, the ridges quite promi- 

 nent as seen in the half-tone illustration 

 on page 203 of Arboriculture for August. 



The bark of other varieties is inclined to 

 scale off and does not form ridges. A 

 good illustration of bignonoides is found 

 on page 132 of our January number. The 

 real character of the bark is not seen in 

 young trees. 



3. While the trees are in blossom com- 

 pare the flowers with our colored plate. 

 While speciosa begins to bloom about two 

 weeks before the others in the same local- 

 ity, yet late blossoms of this variety are 

 prolonged until flowers of other sorts have 

 opened. Sometimes favorable locations 

 advance the blooming period of the in- 

 ferior trees, while in unprotected spots, 

 not far distant speciosa may be retarded 

 so that all flower at the same time. 



^ Notice the comparative size of the in- 

 dividual flowers. There is not a great 

 difference in depth of color in the mark- 

 ings of the flowers but the inferior sorts 

 have a narrow white margin, while speciosa 

 has a broad border of pure white, which 

 lightens the color effect. 



4. Examine the seed pods. For some 

 reason while speciosa produces as large a 

 cluster of flowers as other varieties, only 

 one or two pods are developed, and these 

 are from fourteen to eighteen inches long 

 and three-fourths of an inch thick. 



Bignonoides, the southern form, pro- 

 duces from four to six pods to each clus- 

 ter. These are from six to eight inches 

 in length, and a half inch in thickness. 

 Pure oriental catalpas have from eight to 

 fourteen pods, the size of a new lead pen- 

 cil. 



5. Next observe the seed as it is being 

 gathered. Speciosa seed has a broad 

 pencil of filaments at each end. In the 

 inferior varieties these filaments are drawn 

 to a point and sometimes twisted. 



Seed of Catalpa. 



The ease and rapidity with which seed 

 may be collected from low, spreading 

 trees, like those shown on page 99, Janu- 

 ary Arboriculture, and on page 298, 

 August number, together with the enor- 

 mous quantity of seed produced by the 

 worthless varieties and hybrids, sorely 

 tempt unscrupulous persons to gather 

 them, and many thousand pounds of such 

 seed hav© been distributed throughout 

 America to the serious injury of planters, 

 who are thus inclined to condemn the 

 catalpa without knowing the tree. 



