TREES IN THE GARDEN 255 



back to it as a lawn tree is that it is so short a time in 

 leaf. In a backward season the leaves will not appear 

 till the end of June, or even the beginning of July, and 

 will fall with the first frost ; but as long as they last 

 they are large and handsome, and the habit of the tree 

 makes it a good tree for shade. The fruit is not often 

 produced in England, but it is very curious, like a long 

 French bean. I had abundance of seed in the Jubilee 

 year, but never before or since ; and in the same year 

 the Kohlreuteria, from Japan, was also covered with 

 handsome golden fruit. If this tree always produced 

 its fruit I should recommend it, but it will only do so 

 in such exceptional years, and so I do not recommend 

 it for a small collection. Somewhat similar in foliage 

 and even in flower to the catalpa (though not botani- 

 cally allied) is the Paulownki imperialis, from Japan; 

 but not so much to be recommended as the catalpa, 

 because though a magnificent tree with beautiful purple 

 flowers like a foxglove, the flowers come out before the 

 leaves, and are seldom produced at all except in the 

 mildest parts of England. For this reason I grow it as 

 a shrub, or rather as a herbaceous plant, cutting it 

 down to the ground every autumn. Under this treat- 

 ment very strong shoots are produced in the spring, 

 which carry throughout the summer immense leaves 

 (I have measured them two feet across) of a very 



