ARBORICULTURE 



127 



ish ; strength beyond that of a majoritv 

 of woods, and elasticity equal to that of 

 hickory, a fiber peculiarly adapted to the 

 manufacture of wood pulp and paper ; 

 making lumber suitable for carpentry and 

 building, telegraph poles equal to the best 

 in one-fourth the time required by the 

 white cedar now used so extensively for 

 poles, and cross-ties outlasting five sets of 

 white oak, the standard now for sleepers ; 

 and withal making such rapid growth as 

 to be a marvel to all who know this tree. 

 Are any other qualifications desired, or 

 could they be imagined in any other tree 

 of which the world has knowledge? If 

 more be demanded, we can point to the 

 successful culture and growth of this tree 

 in forty States of the American Union ; 

 in every portion of Europe and America 

 from forty-eight degrees north latitude to 

 forty degrees south of the equator ; in 

 both hemispheres ; in the distant islands 

 of the Pacific ; yea, in Asia, in Japan and 

 Korea, where a hundred thousand trees 

 may be found growing satisfactorily from 

 seed distributed by the International So- 

 ciety of Arboriculture. 



Twenty degrees north of the equator 

 within the Republic of Mexico, both in 

 the hot tropic lands of sea level and at 

 eight thousand feet elevation on the colder 

 tablelands, it is growing with equal suc- 

 cess. 



In Brazil, Argentine Republic, Guate- 

 mala, Hawaii, Australia and New Zea- 

 land are several hundred thousand trees, 

 planted by members of this Society resi- 

 dent in those various lands. In South 

 Africa as well, in Great Britain, France, 

 Germany, Sweden, Italy, members of this 

 Society have forests growing, not a few, 

 but by hundreds of thousands. 



And everywhere the Catalpa speciosa is 

 reported as being successful. 



Within our own country in Virginia 



we have them, where the Bureau of For- 

 estry of the United States declared they 

 could not grow. 



In the Carolinas and throughout the 

 Southland. In Florida they have been 

 largely planted, growing well in the Ever- 

 glades, as testified by the editor of The 

 Homesecker, at Miami. And so far north 

 as Saginaw, Michigan, Niagara Falls, and 

 in Central Maine, as well as in California. 

 Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and all the region 

 between. 



Of what other tree known to the bot- 

 anist through the entire world can it be 

 said to possess such a wide range of 

 adaptability of growth and such a variety 

 of qualifications? What tree is there in 

 any country which can be used for so 

 many useful purposes? 



Some of you gentlemen may have seen 

 the catalpa exhibit at the St. Louis 

 World's Fair. Those who did see it 

 could not fail to be convinced of its value. 



DISTRIBUTION OP WRONG TREES. 



There is one very unfortunate circum- 

 stance. There are other varieties of ca- 

 talpa, all of which are of inferior worth. 

 These have been broadly distributed, and 

 their general inferiority, together with the 

 slight information which the world has 

 upon the subject, and the serious blun- 

 ders made by government botanists, have 

 given the public the wrong impression 

 regarding the Catalpa speciosa. 



So long ago as 1586 a catalpa tree was 

 taken to London and planted in a noted 

 garden, the resort of scholars and the 

 wealthy and titled people of that time. 

 This was a bignonioides Catalpa from 

 North Carolina, then a part of the State 

 of Virginia. The tree attracted marked 

 attention from the beauty of its flowers, 

 and seeds were distributed from this tree 

 to many botanical gardens and private 

 grounds throughout Europe. 



