Cercis canadensis, 
THE CANADIAN JUDAS-TREE. 
Synonymes. 
Cer:is canadensis, 
Gainier de Canada, Bouton rouge, 
Canadischer Judasbaum, 
Siliquastro di Canada, 
Judas-tree, Red-bud, 
' Linn^us, Species Plantarum. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Don, Miller's Dictionary. 
Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
k Torrey and Gray, Flora of North America. 
France. 
Germany. 
Italy. 
Britain and Anglo- America. 
Engravings. Nuttall, North American Sylra, pi. ; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, v., pi. 103; ana the figures below. 
Specific Characters. Leaves acuminate, villose beneath, at the axils of the veins. As compared with the 
Cercis siliquastrum, its flowers are of a paler rose-colour, the legume is on a longer pedicel, and tipped 
with a longer style. De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Description. 
P^^iHE Cercis 
Judas-tree 
handsome 
seldom 
fi 
canadensis, like the 
of Europe, forms a 
shrub, or low tree, 
attaining a height of 
twenty feet, when wild, but sometimes double this height 
in a state of cultivation. It is at once distinguished from 
that tree by its leaves being heart-shaped, and pointed, 
much thinner, more veined, and of a lighter green ; and 
the flowers are generally produced in less numbers. 
The leaves are broadly ovate-cordate, acuminate, hairy 
along the veins on their under sides, of a light bluish- 
green above, and of a pale sea-green underneath. The 
flowers, which put forth before the leaves, in March, 
April, and May, are of a purplish hue, acid to the taste, 
and are succeeded by small, flat, thin, brownish pods, 
containing numerous seeds. 
Geography and History. The Cercis canadensis, in its indigenous state, is 
sparingly produced along the banks of rivers from Canada to Louisiana ; and it 
is found cultivated for ornament in many of the gardens and collections both in 
Europe and in America. It was introduced into Britain in 1730 ; but it has never 
been much cultivated there. 
The largest tree of this species in Europe, and perhaps on the globe, is at Paris, 
in the Rue Grenelle, in the garden of house No. 122, which is stated to be forty 
feet in height, and eighteen inches in diameter. In the Jardin des Plantes, in the 
same city, there is also a tree which attained the height of thirty-six feet in fifty - 
! five years after planting, with a trunk ten inches in diameter, and an ambitus 
I of twenty feet. 
In the environs of London, this tree is seldom found more than ten or twelve 
, feet in height. 
In the Bartram botanic garden, at Kingsessing, near Philadelphia, there is a 
