THK CANADIAN HoKTRULTtT KIST. 



231 



and 4 feet; diameter of heads, 27 feet 

 and 29 feet; height of each, 28 feet. 



On account of its graceful habit, the 

 beauty of its bright green foliage in 

 spring and summer, the sliowy flowers 

 and the brightness of tlie rich yellow 

 autumnal tint assumed by the decaying 

 leaves, the Yellow Wood is eminently 

 a tit subject to be generally planted for 

 eff'ect in parks and pleasure grounds. 

 In its native country it flowers in May 

 and June, but in Britain a month or so 

 later. 



The name Cladrastis, according to its 

 author, Rahnesque, means " brittle 

 branches." For a long time after its 

 separation from the genus to which it 

 was first referred ( Virgilia), C. tinctoria 

 was the only known species; but some 

 years ago, long after the publication of 

 Loudon's " Arboretum," the Russian 

 botanists discovered a second, C. araur- 

 ensis, in Amurland. 



C. Tinctoria seems but little subject 

 to variation ; no varieties are mention- 

 ed in any of the numerous tree cata- 

 logues and books I have looked through, 

 with the single exception of M. Laval- 

 Ide's ''Arboretum Segrezianum," where 

 the name "gracilis" is given to a form 

 I have not seen. 



In his "Catalogue of the Forest Trees 

 of North America," Professor C. S. Sar- 

 gent gives the following information 

 respecting the Yellow Wood : It is 

 found from Central Kentucky, on the 

 banks of the Kentucky River south, to 

 Middle and eastern Tennessee. The 

 wood is of a clear yellow colour, is said 

 to split with difficulty, and to make 

 valuable fuel. It is a small or medium- 

 sized tree; found principally along 

 streams or on rich hillsides; rare, and 

 in danger of extermination for fuel. 



C. Amurensis diff*ers from the above 

 in its larger buds, olive-green bark — in 

 old trees peeling off" in flakes like that 

 of our common Birch — duller green, 



more leathery leaves, and in its erect 

 panicled racemes of more densely pack- 

 ed, much smaller, more shortly-stalked 

 flowers. Although not so handsome or 

 graceful a tree as the Yellow W^ood, 

 it is well w^orth a place in any gar- 

 den ; it is perfectly hardy, und flowers 

 freely in a younger state than C. tinc- 

 toria. In spring the peculiar grey- 

 green of the silky [)ubesceiice which 

 clothes the young leaves gives this an 

 appearance totally unlike that of most 

 other hardy trees. When seeds are not 

 procurable, perhaps the most ready 

 means of propagation is by grafting, us- 

 ing Sophora japonica as a stock. 



In its native countries — Manchuria, 

 where it ranges in the basin of the 

 Amur River from lat. 50° 15' to 52° 

 20' north, and the Japanese island of 

 Jesso — it makes a small tree of 40 feet 

 in height, with a trunk 6 inches in dia- 

 meter, and drooping, densely leafy 

 branches. 



Sir Joseph Hooker, in the Botanical 

 Maijazine, thus speaks of this tree : 

 "It is not to be wondered at that, when 

 the subject of the present plate was des- 

 cribed, it was supposed to be a new 

 genus, for at that time the close affinity 

 of the floras of North-eastern Asia and 

 the Eastern United States was not gen- 

 erally recognised, and the affinity of 

 Maackia with the hitherto monotypic 

 genus Cladrastis could not have been 

 anticipated. Nevertheless, these two geo- 

 graphically widely severed plants are 

 unquestionably congeneric, and not to 

 be separated by even a sectional char- 

 acter. It thus adds another to the re- 

 markable as.semblage of genera found 

 in the two countries indicated, but 

 not in the intervening territories of 

 Western America and of which Pro- 

 fessor Asa Gray has made such good 

 use in tiacing the origin and mignitions 

 of the North America flora. — Tlie Gar- 

 den. 



