340 



BlGNONIACEAE. 



Chilopsis. Desert Willow. 

 (Family Bignoniaceae). 



Shrub or small tree: decidu- 

 ous. Twigs slender, ridged below 

 the leaf-scars: pith rather small, 

 rounded, continuous, white. Buds 

 solitary, sessile, small, subglobose, 

 with some 3 or 4 pointed scales 

 swollen at base, the end-bud lack- 

 ing. Leaf-scars 6-ranked, in whorls 

 of 3 or in pairs, or scattered sin- 

 gly, small, half-elliptical, raised: 

 bundle-trace 1, transverse: stipule- 

 scars lacking. The long terete 

 pods, with seeds ciliate at the 

 ends as in Catalpa, persist in 

 winter. 



Chilopsis is the southwestern 

 equivalent of the northeastern 

 catalpas, and like them, though 

 not in the same profusion, pro- 

 duces large and showy flowers. It 

 is scarcely hardy north of St. 

 Louis in the interior, and like the catalpa is of rather irregu- 

 lar open habit; but its slender willowy twigs and narrow 

 leaves give it a grace entirely lacking to its coarser relative. 

 Somewhat mealy: lenticels conspicuous. C. saligna. 



