198 



ARBORICULTURE 



Hybridization of Forest Trees 



Mr. Robert W. Douglas: 



Replying to your inquiry regarding the 

 hybridization of the Catalpa family. 

 There is no family of trees more affected 

 by cross pollenization than is the Catalpa- 

 family. 



In general terms, no stock breeder 

 considers the crosses between thorough ■ 

 bred and scrub or ordinary stock as 

 valuable as the higher bred parent. Still, 

 grade animals are usually superior to the 

 inferior parent. 



Just so the hybrids in plant life are 

 often far improved over the wild, and 

 may gradually be brought up to a higher 

 standard. 



Catalpa speciosa has certain valuable 

 qualities, while bignonoides may be con- 

 sidered as being almost entirely without 

 these qualifications, and kemferii, the 

 oriental variety, differs materially from 

 both. 



Crosses between speciosa and bigno- 

 noides are largely prone to follow the 

 defects of the Southern or wild form, 

 although occasionally partaking of the 

 better qualities of the Northern variety, 

 speciosa. 



As a rule all inferior plants seed more 

 freely and are distributed in much greater 

 numbers than are the higher bred or 

 cultivated kinds. Plants which are 

 termed weeds produce a thousand fold 

 more seed than cultivated plants of the 

 same species. 



This is peculiarly the case with the 

 catalpa. Kemferii often produce thirty 

 pods, each containing a hundred seeds, 

 from one cluster of flowers, and as many 

 flower clusters as other varieties. This 

 also occurs with its hybrids. Bigno- 

 noides, while not so fecundate as the 

 former, still far surpass speciosa in 

 fruitfulness. 



Pure kemferii has an upright stem, its 

 wood is valuable, being used in Japan 

 for blocks in wood engraving and for 

 many other uses. There are very few 

 pure Kemferii trees in America, almost 

 all having been hybridized with bigno- 

 noides, and partake of all the bad quali- 



ties of the Southern tree with none of the 

 natural good of the oriental, original. 

 Bignonoides crossed with speciosa make 

 the millions of scrub trees which are 

 found in every locality. 



I do not know of a single hybrid catalpa 

 in this country which is equal to the 

 genuine speciosa. 



It has been asked how speciosa origi- 

 nated and why it is so superior, and why 

 confined to a remarkably small area in 

 the Wabash Valley of Indiana and 

 extending into the edge of Illinois, while 

 bignonoides cover a territory equal to 

 one-fourth of the United States. 



An answer to this can only be a 

 conjecture, but I would say that bigno- 

 noides was the original or wild form of 

 American catalpa, and that by some 

 accidental means one plant was produced 

 of a superior character, and being isolated 

 from the wild trees continued to propa- 

 gate itself and to fix permanently the 

 peculiar qualities which it had inherited. 



Pecularities of bark, flowers, upright 

 habit, seed, seed pods, wood growth, are 

 all inherited and transmitted by pure 

 speciosa and are all, to greater or less 

 extent, changed to resemble the inferior 

 variety when hybridized. 



A Live Telephone Company 



Mechanicsburg, Ohio, Oct. 11, 1906. 

 Mr. John P. Brown, 



Dear Sir: — Enclosed please find check for 

 $2 00, subscription for Arboriculture for 

 1906-1907. 



The telephone company of which I am secre- 

 tary and manager is a $40,000 corporation, and is 

 the first telephone company in the world to provide 

 a future supply of poles for its own use. We 

 purchased twenty acres of land and planted 20,000 

 catalpa trees this year. I planted 28,000 on my 

 own land this year and thousands of them grew 

 six-foot new wood and one and one-half inches in 

 thickness this first summer's growth. 



I believe I can make claim to have the best per 

 cent, of stand of trees of any large planter in the 

 union. Out of the 28,000 trees planted, less than 

 twenty-five trees are missing, and most of them 

 were jerked out by the cultivators. I am 



Yours truly, 



H. C. Rogers. 



