16 



Ni:W ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



traveller. In its native country its local 

 name is Kirri ; and the Chinese call it 

 Too-IIak-Too. It forms a tree, in Japan, 

 about 30 or 40 feet high, Avith a trunk two 

 or three feet in diameter. The bark is 

 smooth and light colored. The branches 

 are rather few in number, spreading hori- 

 zontally and forming a large head. 



resemble in g/neral api)earnnce those of (he 

 Catalpa, but the color is a pale bluish- vio- 

 let. The seeds are borne in an oval 

 sule as large ns a pigeon's egg. 



cap- 





Fig. 4. THE PAULOWNIA. 



Paulownia imperialis. Sieboldt & 7.ucc. 



Schrophiilariaceo'. Liiid. Vcg. King-. 



The striking peculiarity of the Paulow- 

 nia, however, is its showy foliage. The 

 leaves are of the shape of those of the Ca- 

 talpa, but of a darker green, perhaps re- 

 sembling more closely those of a large sun- 

 flower — being broad and heart-shaped. In 

 rich soil, the growth of the tree is extremely 

 rapid — young plants making shoots of 8 or 

 10 feet in a season, and on such, wc have 

 measured leaves a foot and a half in diam- 

 eter. But on older trees, they are usually 

 about half that size. 



The flowers are produced in April, in 

 panicles, at the ends of the branches. They 



Fig. 5. Blossviiis nfllie Pouloiniia. l-'\lh the natural size. 



When the Paulownia was first introduced 

 into the Garden of Plants at Paris, it was 

 treated as a delicate green-house plant. It 

 was soon found, however, that it was per- 

 fectly hardy on the Continent and in Eng- 

 land. In this country it appears equally so. 

 The trees in this latitude have stood the 

 past two winters, even in exposed situations, 

 without covering, and have not lost an inch 

 of the previous season's growth. Wc 

 therefore consider it a hardier tree than the 

 Catalpa, which often suffers badly from the 

 cold of this latitude. Nothing is easier 

 than the propagation of this tree. Single 

 buds will grow, like those of the Mulberry 

 and the Vine, taken off early in the spring 

 and covered about an inch deep in the soi' 

 of a fresh hot bed. The cuttings of the 

 young shoots, planted under a hand-glass in 

 a shady border, strike root readily. But by 



