258 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



beautiful object in spring, especially when it is covered with its numerous bright 

 purplish pink flowers, which appear before the leaves, and are produced not 

 only from the young wood, but from wood of 6 or 8 years growth, and even 

 from the trunk. The leaves are not liable to be attacked by insects. The 

 flowers are succeeded by flat, thin, brown pods, nearly 6 in. in length, which 

 remain on the tree all the year, and give it a very singular appearance in the 

 winter season. The rate of growth is about 18 in. a year, for the first 10 years. 

 Tiie wood is very hard, and agreeably veined, or rather blotclied or waved, 

 with black, green, and yellow spots, on a grey groimtl. It takes a beautiful 

 polish, and weighs nearly 48 lb. to the cubic foot. The flowers, which have 

 an agreeable acid taste, are mixed with salads, or fried with batter, as fritters ; 

 and the flower-buds are pickled in vinegar. In British gardens, the tree grows 

 about the same height, and flowers about the same time, as the laburnum, the 

 Guelder rose, and the hawthorn, and enters into beautiful combination with 

 these and other trees. The foliage is hardly less beautiful and remarkable than 

 the flowers ; the leaves being of a pale bluish green on the upper surface ; and 

 of a sea-green underneath, and of a cordate reniform shape, apparently con- 

 sisting of two leaflets joined together; which circumstance, combined with 

 others, brings the genus in close alliance with that of Baiibinw. Like most of 

 the Leguminacea;, this tree prefers a deep, free, sandy soil, rich rather than 

 poor; and it will only thrive, and become a handsome tree, in sheltered situa- 

 tions. In the northern parts of the island, it requires to be planted against a 

 wall; and few ornamental trees better deserve such a situation. The species 

 is propagated by seeds, and the varieties by grafting. The seeds are sown on 

 heat early in spring, and come up the same season ; and the plants will produce 

 flowers in three or four years. 



X 2. C. canade'nsis L. The Canada Judas Tree. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 534. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. .^18. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 463. 



Synonymes. Siliqu^strum corditum Moench Meth. ; red Bird Tree, Amer. ; Gainier de Canada, 



Bouton rouge, Fr. 

 Engravings. Mill. Icon., t. 2. ; the plate of this species in Arb. Brit., 1st edit., vol. v. ; and our 



fig. 420. 



A%0. C^rcis canad^nsit 



