180 AUTUMNAL COLOUR 



measuring twenty-one feet in girth of bole. 1 Since 

 then we have treated our stock as forest growth ; but 

 there is nothing to show yet above ten feet high. 

 Howbeit, even if it never does more than that, it is a 

 notable addition to our hardy list, for, among all the 

 manifold tints of autumn, this is the only tree that 

 clothes itself in bright rose. Positively, its leaves at 

 this season are no unequal match to the petals of that 

 charming thornless rose Zepherine Drouhin. It seems, 

 however, that it will not behave so prettily in all soils, 

 for at Kew its leaves fade into a dingy yellow, with 

 none of the sunset tints that delight us here. 



The tree known to the Chinese as Mu-lan-tze, but 

 named unfeelingly by European botanists Kodreuteria 

 paniculata, stands naked by mid -October, but in 

 September it was robed very becomingly in a soft tint 

 of apricot flushed with rose. The pinnate leaves are 

 beautifully formed, and the tree is perfectly hardy in 

 the United Kingdom. There is a good specimen in 

 the Chelsea Physic Garden, the only one I know in 

 London. Of much purer yellow are the fading leaves 

 of American yellow wood (Cladrastis tinctoria), well 

 worthy of a sheltered place where it may have a 

 chance of reaching the height of one at Syon, which is 

 registered as sixty feet. 



The majority of deciduous trees, whether native or 

 exotic, incline to yellow or russet in their autumnal 

 dress ; the more reason, therefore, to arrange places for 

 those which hoist crimson and scarlet colours. Among 

 these it would be difficult to find any to surpass our 



1 Mr. Wilson has since reported a Cercidiphyllum in China measur- 

 ing fifty-five feet in girth. 



