Redbud 535 



considered by some authors as distinct ; in that case our tree would have to be 

 known as Tamarindus occidentalis Gsertner. 



11. THE REDBUDS 



GENUS CERCIS LINN^US 



ERCIS consists of some 6 species of small trees or shrubs, inhabitants 

 of the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Fossils referable to 

 this genus have also been found in the Eocene formation of Europe. 

 The leaves are deciduous, alternate, simple, entire, and long- 

 stalked. The flowers are perfect, irregular, in simple clusters or racemes, on slen- 

 der pedicels and borne on the branches of the previous year. The calyx is 

 oblique, bell-shaped and 5-toothed, colored and persistent; corolla of 5 nearly equal 

 rose-colored clawed petals, the standard the smallest, the keel larger than the 

 wings; stamens 10, in two scries, distinct, the inner series the shorter, their anthers 

 oblong, versatile, opening lengthwise; ovary short-stalked, oblique, many-ovuled; 

 style thick and fleshy, incurved and tipped by the obtuse stigma. The fruit is a 

 very flat, papery legume, oblong or broadly hnear, taper-pointed at each end, 

 2-valved, dark red-purple, reticulate veined, many seeded, one edge narrowly 2- 

 winged; the seeds are transverse on slender stalks; they are ovate or oblong, flat- 

 tened and reddish brown; the embryo is surrounded by a thin layer of endosperm. 

 Cercis is the Greek name of the Old World Judas tree, C.Siliquaslnim Linnaeus, 

 the type of the genus. Our species are: 



Leaves abruptly pointed; pod stalked in the calyx; eastern. i. C. canadensis. 



Leaves notched, rounded or blunt-pointed. 



Leaves blunt-pointed; pod scarcely stalked in the calyx; Texan and 



Mexican. 2. C. reniformis. 



Leaves rounded or notched; pod stalked in the calyx; Californian. 3. C. occidefitalis. 



I. REDBUD Cercis canadensis Linnaeus 



This beautiful tree, which is also called the Judas tree, Salad tree, and Junebud, 

 occurs from Ontario and New Jersey to Florida, and westwardly to Minnesota 

 and Arkansas, where it is a common tree or large shrub, mostly in the rich soil 

 of river valleys, attaining a maximum height of 15 meters, with a trunk diameter 

 of 4.5 dm. 



The bark is 12 mm. thick, deeply fissured into narrow ridges, which separate 

 into thin reddish brown scales, that of the branches usually smooth; the twigs are 

 slender, shining, Hght brown, becoming dull and gray-brown; the winter buds are 

 3 mm. long, bluntly ovoid and covered with brown scales. The leaves are rather 

 thick, ovate-orbicular or reniform, 8 to 12 cm. long, abruptly contracted at the 

 apex into a short, broad tip, more or less heart-shaped at the base, bright green 

 and smooth above, paler and usually smooth, except along the hair\' veins be- 



