212 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



The Sassafras is a very agreeable tree to the eye, decked 

 as it is with its glossy, deep green, oval, or three-lobed 

 leaves. When fully grown, it is also quite picturesque for 

 a tree of so moderate a size ; as its branches generally have 

 an irregular, somewhat twisted look, and the head is 

 partially flattened, and considerably varied in outline 

 After ten years of age, this tree always looks older than it 

 re-ally is, from its rough, deeply cracked, grey bark, and 

 rather crooked stem. It often appears extremely well on 

 the borders of a plantation, and mixes well with almost any 

 of the heavier deciduous trees. As it is by no means so 

 common a tree as many of those already noticed, it is gene- 

 rally the more valued, and may frequently be seen growing 

 along the edges of cultivated fields and pastures, appearing 

 to thrive well in any good mellow soil. 



THE CATALPA TREE. Catalpa. 

 Nat. Ord. Bignoniacere. Lin. Syst. Diandria, Monogynia. 



A native of nearly all the states south and west of Vir- 

 ginia, this tree has become naturalized also throughout the 

 middle and eastern sections of the Union, where it is 

 generally planted for ornament. 



In Carolina it is called the Catawba tree, after the 

 Catawba Indians, a tribe that formerly inhabited that 

 country ; aad it is probable that the softer epithet now 

 generally bestowed upon it in the north, is only a corrup- 

 tion of that original name. 



The leaves of this tree are very large, often measuring 

 six or seven inches broad ; they are heart-shaped in form, 



