1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



179 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Catalpa Wood.— G. M. F., Henderson, Ky., i 

 writes: "I sowed, recently, a considerable 

 quantity of Catalpa seeds for timber, and now 1 

 am told that there are two kinds, the White and 

 the' Yellow Catalpa, and that the white is of 

 little value for durability. Can you tell me any- 

 thing about this, as it would be very unfortunate 

 for me, after waiting a number of years, to find 

 I had made a mistake ? I have read Mr. Bar- 

 ney's pamphlet, and I cannot learn from that 

 that there is any difference in the durability of 

 the timber of either kind, only that the one is 

 more hardy than the other. That there is a 

 difference in the durability of the two kinds of 

 timber I believe. The timber known here as 

 the White Catalpa is not so durable as the yel- 

 lovv, but, so far as I have been able to judge, the 

 white and yellow timber are all from the same 

 kind, — the white being from the younger and 

 the yellow from older trees." 



[We cannot say. The whole Catalpa question 

 has been so mixed through the reckless state- 

 ments of enthusiasts that it is difficult for the 

 cool-headed investigator to understand the exact 

 merits of the two varieties. For ourselves, we 

 have become »o puzzled that we have had to 

 leave the whole matter to time to unravel. If 

 what our correspondent supposes about the dif- 

 ference between the white and yellow wooded 

 Catalpa be correct, it will be a fact against the 

 supposed merits of the C. speciosa, as the east- 

 ern form is a very dark brown. We never saw 

 any Catalpa wood that could be called " white," 

 except the two outer annual rings of wood. 

 Moreover, almost all of the facts in regard to 



the wonderful durability of Catalpa timber have 

 been derived from experience with the eastern 

 form. Rafinesque, over sixty years ago, refers 

 to the then long known reputation for durability 

 of Catalpa timber, — and this was before civil- 

 ization had scarcelj' penetrated a forest beyond 

 the Ohio River. Near where we write is a 

 '•Yellow" Catalpa timber gate-post, that, we 

 have been informed, is some fifty years old. 

 Our correspondent will thus see that we shall 

 have to determine which species is the "yel- 

 low" and which is the "white," or whether the 

 same kind will be sometimes white or some- 

 times yellow, before we can correctly answer 

 his questions. — Ed. G. M.] 



Growth of Timber. — C. B. P., Albany, 

 Ills., writes : " I have just been looking over 

 The Gardener's Monthly, for September, 

 1877, and noticed a note on the rapid growth 

 of hickory, and I send you a little of my 

 experience. I planted some fine, — what we here 

 call Mississippi — hickory nuts, six years ago last 

 fall, and they have grown from 6 to 16 inches in. 

 that time; also planted seeds of sugar maple 

 five years ago, and they have grown 10 to 18 

 inches. Black walnut makes an average with 

 me of 2 feet per annum, and in nine years a 

 diameter of 7 inches." 



[Our correspondent probably means that the 

 hickory and sugar-maple have grown the height 

 he says so much a year average in that time, for 

 surely it would be very exceptional for either of 

 these trees, but especially the maple, to make 

 only eighteen inches of absolute growth in five 

 years. But the walnut is a well-known rapid 

 grower even in its earliest stages of seedling 

 life.— Ed. G. M.] 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



EXTRACT FROM MY NOTE BOOK. 



BY REDWOOD CALEHOPPER, WILMINGTON, DEr>. 



Before setting out on the little jaunt up the 

 Brandywine creek, I came upon a Paper Mul- 

 berry overhanging a fence at the Corner of 

 13th and King streets. This mulberry, like one 



which I had previously described In the Gar- 

 deners' Monthly, had sent out roots from 

 i the new wood formed along an opening in the 

 [ tree's side. The opening in this latter case had 

 doubtless once been completely filled with 

 brown or black decayed wood, but a portion of 

 this having been knocked or weather-washed 

 away, one or two large roots starting from a 

 point about eight feet above the ground were 



