198 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



'i 1. Y. hV^TEA. Michx. The yellow -wooded VirgiUa, or Yellow Wood. 



Jdentiftcation. Michx. Fil. Arb. Amer., 3. p. 266. t. 3. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 98. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 112. 

 Engravings. Delaun. Herb. Amat., t. 197. ; Michx. Fil. Arb. Amer., 3. p. 226. t. 3. j the plate of 

 this tree in Arb. Brit., 1st edit., vol. v. ; and our ^g^. 296. 



Spec. Char., ^-c. Leaves pinnate ; leaflets 9 1 1 ; alternate, ovate, pointed, 

 smooth, A deciduous tree. North America. On the mountains of Cum- 

 berland, and the Mississippi. Height in America 40 ft.; 10 ft. to 20 ft. in 

 England. Introduced in 1812. Flowers yellowish white, in pendulous 

 racemes ; June to Aun;ust. Pods never produced in England. Decaying 

 leaves rich yellow. Naked young wood yellowish brown. 



The leaves, on young trees, are from 1 ft. to Ia ft. in length, and on old trees 

 not above half that size. The flowers form white pendulous racemes, a Httle 

 larger than those of the Robini Pseud-//cacia, but not so odoriferous. The 

 seeds are like those of the robinia, and, in America, ripen about the middle 



29G. Virgflia Idtea. 



of August. In Britain, the tree has flowered in the Chelsea Botanic Gar- 

 den, and at Hylands in Essex, but has not yet produced pods. An open airy 

 situation is desirable, in order that the tree may ripen its wood; and, to fa- 

 cilitate the same purpose where the climate is cold, the soil ought to be dry 

 rather than rich. In the London nurseries, it is propagated chiefly by Ame- 

 rican seeds, but it will doubtless grow by cuttings of the roots. 



Genus III. 



PIPTA'^TTHUS Swt. The Piptantiius. Lin. Syst. Decandria 



Monogynia. 



Idenlification. Swt. Fl.-Gard., 264. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 112. 



Jierivatimi. I'rom piptb, to fall, and anthos, a flower ; from the flowers falling off very soon. 



