392 STATE rOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



in ail northern Illinois, above La Salle, in Wisconsin, in IN'ebraska, and in 

 Kansas north of the Kaw l\iver, and in all Iowa it is considered tender, 

 and it has been damaged occasionally even at St. Louis, Mo., in latitude 38.37 

 N. In all this region wherever the eastern form has been introduced it has 

 been found more or less tender, and young plants are often cut to the ground. 

 Therefore, the extensive planting of this tree, the type of the species, can not 

 be urged anywhere beyond the fortieth parallel north. 



The typical tree planted in France has suffered from frost in Paris, but suc- 

 ceeds on the shores of the Mediterranean, and also at Vienna, Austria. In 

 Great Britain it has attained large proportions in the south of England, bloom- 

 ing in July and August about London, but not perfecting its seed satisfacto- 

 rily. According to Loudon it becomes almost an herbaceous plant in Scotland, 

 and requires a green-house at St. Petersburg, in Russia. 



In its western form, whether this be a mere variety or a true species', the 

 catalpa is sufficiently hardy to be planted north of latitude 42, — even on the 

 bleak prairies of Iowa and Nebraska. A few trees have been grown in Mas- 

 sachusetts, near a stormy coast. It adorns the streets of Columbus, Dayton 

 and other towns in Ohio, as at Indianapolis, Terre Haute, and even at Ft. 

 Wayne, Ind. It lives on dry, sandy land at Ypsilanti, Mich., and at Wau- 

 kegan, on Lake Michigan, in the northeast corner of Illinois; and thrives 

 nobly at Princeton and other points of northern Illinois, where the eastern 

 form has suffered; so does it survive and flourish at Muscatine and other 

 parts of southeastern Iowa, even above latitude 42 degrees, and is found in 

 Omaha, and the corresponding quarter of Nebraska, in all of which the nor- 

 mal type is tender, or at best but half-hardy, even under the more favorable 

 conditions of shelter. 



CHAKACTER OF THE TIMBER. 



In very early times the French settlers on the Wabash had gathered the in- 

 formation respecting the western catalpa from the Indians which it has taken 

 the intelligent American citizen nearly two centuries to acquire. They learn- 

 ed that its timber possessed exceedingly valuable properties. The aborigines 

 had found it easily worked, even with their imperfect tools. They apprecia- 

 ted its lightness and strength in the construction of their canoes, which ena- 

 bled them to effect the portages from one stream to another. They found it 

 durable vrhere it had fallen across a stream and formed a natural bridge, of 

 which an old Indian is reported to have said, *' My father's father crossed on 

 that log," giving it a duration on the ground without decay of more than four 

 generations, or more than a century. The French were not slow to act upon 

 the hint, and used it in the construction of their stockade and their habita- 

 tions, which Gen. Harrison found in a good state of preservation. He also 

 applied the timber to economical purposes, and urged the cultivation of the 

 tree. Posts of his planting about the governors residence at Vincennes are 

 still in use, and likely to remain sound for a long time. 



It is believed that all catalpa timber is durable, but heretofore the trees 

 have been planted solely for ornament, and the habit or form of the kind 

 selected was a matter of less moment than if looking to the economical ap- 

 plication of the timber. Still, here and there instances may be found where 

 the common catalpa has been used chieily as fence-posts, which have stood 

 well. But in the western forests its great value has been so fully appreciated 

 by the early settlers and their successors, that the timber has now become 



