CATALPA. 



CATALPA SYRINGIFOLIA. 



BIGNONIK*. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPEHMIA. 



This genus was named Bignonia by Tournefort, in compliment 

 to Abbe Bignon, librarian to Louis the Fourteenth. French, 

 catalpe ; Italian, catalpa. 



THE Catalpa is a deciduous tree, rising with an upright 

 stem to the height of forty feet ; it has many lateral 

 branches, on which the leaves are placed opposite, at 

 every joint : they are heart-shaped. The flowers grow in 

 large branching panicles, towards the ends of the branches; 

 they are of a dingy white, with a few purple spots, and 

 faint stripes of yellow on the inside: these open in 

 August, and are succeeded by long taper pods ; but it 

 does not produce the fruit in this country. 



This tree was found by Mr. Catesby, in South Carolina, 

 at a great distance from the English settlements; and 

 brought to England in the year 1726. It is now not 

 uncommon in our nurseries and plantations. In this 

 climate the leaves come out very late; which, before 

 the tree was well understood, has often led persons to 

 think them dead, and even to cut them down on that 

 supposition. 



The branches dye wool a kind of cinnamon colour. 

 Thunberg says, the Japonese consider the leaves as 

 beneficial to the nerves, and lay them on any part of the 

 body affected with pain, as a cure for it. 



