1879.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



49 



hardy, speciosa, or early blooming, never dies 

 Irom frost in any of these States. Col. J. W. 

 Stevens of Minneapolis, Minn. 45"" north lati- 

 tude, writes that it stands their climate where 

 the thermometer falls to 40" below zero some- 

 times. While the common or late blooming, 

 makes a very handsome tree occasionally, erect 

 and shapely, and in some groves that I have 

 seen, is tall and straight ; but this, I think, is the 

 exception rather than the rule. Of a thousand 

 common Catalpa shade trees in this vicinity, j 

 the majority may ))e termed scraggly. Of a 

 thousand of the early blooming, I do not know 

 one ; while all are not perfectly straight, a very 

 large proportion are very handsome trees. In 

 Pennsylvania and South Carolina, persons 

 write me that the common Catalpa is often 

 scraggly. 



In Marshall Co., 111. are several groves, also 

 many single trees of the early blooming variety ; 

 every tree is straight erect and shapely. They 

 were planted from the seed in the open prairie 

 twelve to sixteen years ago. I have been under 

 the impression that the samples of durability of 

 Catalpa to which public attention has been called, 

 have all been of the common or late blooming 

 variet3^ 



Last Spring, samples of posts were sent 

 me from Southern Illinois that had been in the 

 ground over forty years. Though it is difficult 

 to determine the varieties from the wood, I was 

 strongly inclined to think the samples sent were 

 of the earh' blooming or hardy variety. I deemed 

 it so important to determine beyond any question 

 that the durability on and under the ground was 

 a marked characteristic of the early as well as 

 the late blooming, that I arranged with a horti- 

 culturist of thirty years' experience, and familiar 

 nearly all time with both varieties, to visit 

 Southern Illinois and other points to make a 

 careful investigation. He writes me that after a 

 full and careful examination of posts forty- 

 seven years in the ground, many of which still 

 have the bark on and are therefore varieties 

 readily ascertained, he is fully satisfied that the 

 early blooming variety is quite as enduring as 

 the late blooming, placed on or in the ground. 

 He sends a piece of a fence post with the bark 

 on perfectly sound, that has been in the ground 

 forty-seven years. He says the garden round 

 which these posts were planted forty-seven years 

 ago has been removed and the posts taken up 

 and re-set, and that the owner, Mr. Murphy, says 

 they are good for the balance of a century. The 



bark, after the tree is eight to ten years old, is a 

 sure index of the variety. 



Some claim to be able to distinguish them by 

 the size, shape and number of pods. I cannot 

 so distinguish them, as they very widely differ 

 each year. Dr. Jno. A. Warder informed me, 

 last week, of a new method of distinguishing 

 them, that so far as I can judge, is perfect, at 

 least it has proved so in a great number of tests 

 I have made. The pith of the pod of the early 

 blooming or speciosa variety, has on. each side 

 of it, running its whole length, a well-defined 

 ridge ; the late blooming, or common, has no 

 such ridge on its pith. The seeds of the early 

 are broader than the common, and this width 

 extends out the whole length of the wings ; the 

 hair-like appendages at the extremities of the 

 wings resemble fringe. In the late blooming, 

 the wings taper to a point from which a little 

 tuft of hail- extends, resembling somewhat a 

 camel's hair pencil brush. The difference in the 

 pith and hairy appendages of the wings is so dis- 

 tinct and clearly marked, and as far as I can 

 judge, so uniform, as to give an easy and sure 

 mode of judging the vai'iety. 



I enclose pods of both varieties for your ex- 

 amination, and shall be much obliged for your 

 opinion of the correctness of this mode of de- 

 termining the variety of Catalpa. The three 

 small pods are of the common variety. The 

 common this year here is very full of small pods. 

 The early has few pods this year ; hundreds of 

 trees none at all, due, I think, to heavy rains 

 Avhile in bloom. Three years ago the late bloom- 

 ing had large pods and as long as the early. My 

 impression is, there was then the same marked 

 difference in the hairy appendages. Please com- 

 pare pods of the common Catalpa with you, with 

 these three ; probably yours are larger, and see 

 if there is the same difference in pith and hairy 

 appendages as I have spoken of. 



[The differences are as pointed out by Mr. 

 Barney. The seeds of the Eastern form are one 

 inch long and an eighth of an inch wide, and 

 those of the Western form, one inch long and a 

 quarter of an inch wide. But the greatest dif- 

 ference is in the silky appendages at the ends 

 of the seeds. In the Western form these are 

 but half an inch long, and each hair is " combed 

 out straight" on the edge of the seed. In the 

 Eastern form the hair is an inch long, and all 

 drawn out together like a "waxed moustache." 

 Instead of mere varieties, it is likely they may 

 take rank as distinct species. — Ed. G. M.] 



