The Catalpas 



have also the habit of sprouting from the stump; and lower 

 branches, lying on the ground, often strike root. 



The Western Catalpa (C. speciosa, Engelm.) is hardier 

 than the Southern species, and it grows in more upright form, 

 promising more and better timber in a given time. It has stout, 

 thick-walled fruits, thicker, more pointed leaves, and fewer 

 flowers, less gaily spotted, in a cluster. 



This tree ranges in bottom lands from lower Indiana and 

 Illinois to Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. It occurs in western 

 Kentucky and Tennessee. This is the best species for the West, 

 where plantations are becoming more and more common and 

 profitable. Railroad companies are interested in these enter- 

 prises. The Bureau of Forestry is investigating the possibilities 

 and the limitations of catalpa groves as a source of lumber in the 

 prairie states. The disappearance of American forests has brought 

 into prominence trees of quick growth and durable wood. The 

 railroad men are asking where the ties of the future are to come 

 from. Before the famine comes is the time to lay up stores. 

 Catalpa trees are large enough for ties in a dozen years of growth. 

 They often lay on an inch of wood annually. They come quickly 

 from seed, so that nursery stock is very cheap. A plantation of 

 50,000 trees was set out by a Western railroad at a cost of one cent 

 per tree. In six years catalpa trunks are big enough for fence 

 posts. 



As to durability, tests give very satisfactory results. A 

 forest was inundated in Missouri by the earthquake of 181 1. 

 Sixty-seven years after, the catalpas stood perfectly sound, while 

 all other trees had utterly disappeared. Catalpa ties, selected 

 at random, are sound after a dozen years of use. Fence posts 

 known to have been set fifty years look as if they were good for 

 the rest of the century. 



The Desert W^illow (Chilopsis linearis, DC), a little tree 

 on the boundary between Texas and Mexico, is a member of the 

 bignonia family. It has white flowers and pods, somewhat like 

 those of the catalpas, but its leaves are often a foot long, and 

 narrow as a blade of grass. It is sometimes planted in Southern 

 gardens. The only species in the genus, it will not be confused 

 with other trees. 



The Black Calabash Tree (Crescentia cucurbiiina, Linn.) is 

 the only other native tree that belongs in the family with the 



447 



