DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 243 



In the upper part of Massachusetts, we have observed 

 them in their native soils growing 70 or 80 feet high, and 

 assuming a highly pleasing appearance. Their foliage is 

 bluish-green, and more delicate ; yet altogether the Ame- 

 rican Larch appears to be more stiff and formal (except 

 far north) than the foreign tree. 



THE VIRGILIA TREE. Virgilia* 

 Nat. Ord. Leguminaceae. Lin. Sysl. Dccandria, Monogynia. 



This fine American tree, still very rare in our orna- 

 mental plantations, is a native of West Tennessee, and the 

 banks of the Kentucky river, and in its wild localities 

 seems confined to rather narrow limits. It was named, 

 when first discovered, after the poet Virgil, whose 

 agreeable Georgics have endeared him to all lovers of 

 nature and a country life. 



The Virgilia is certainly one, of the most beautiful of 

 all that class of trees bearing papilionaceous, or pea-shaped 

 flowers, and pinnate leaves, of which the common locust 

 may serve as a familiar example. It grows to a fine, 

 rather broad head, about 30 or 40 feet high, with dense 

 and luxuriant foliage much more massy and finely tufted 

 than that of most other pinnated-leaved trees. Each leaf 

 is composed of seven or eight leaflets, three or four inches 

 long, and half that breadth, the whole leaf being more than 

 a foot in length. These expand rather late in the spring, 

 and are, about the middle of May, followed by numerous 

 terminal racemes, or clusters, of the most delicate and 

 charming pea-shaped blossoms, of a pure white. These 



* Cladeastris tinctona. Torrey and Gray. 



