JUDAS TREE. 



CERCIS. 



LKGUMINOStf. DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



The botanical name of this tree is from the Greek, and signifies 

 a little sheath. The French call it gainier, which has the same 

 signification ; and arbre de Judee ; as we call it Judas tree j because 

 it is said Judas hanged himself upon this tree, which has also 

 been reported of the elder tree. The Spaniards, on account of its 

 beauty, or as Gerarde terms it, its " braveness," call it the tree of 

 love, rather contradictory with the last-mentioned name. 



THE European Judas tree, Cercis sUiquastium, will 

 grow twenty feet high, dividing into many irregular 

 branches ; the bark is dark brown, the leaves are of a 

 pale green on the upper, of a greyish colour on the under 

 side ; the flowers are papilionaceous, of a bright purple, 

 and very beautiful ; they come out in the spring in large 

 clusters on every side of the branches, and often of the 

 stem also, and are in full blow before the leaves have at- 

 tained half their size. These are succeeded by long flat 

 pods, containing each one row of seeds ; but in this 

 country the pods are seldom seen upon the standard 

 trees, because the birds commonly pick off the flowers as 

 soon as they are full blown. Where they are planted 

 against the wall, they will produce pods, which in warm 

 seasons ripen very well. This tree deserves a place in 

 every shrubbery or pleasure-garden, being indeed sin- 

 gularly handsome ; when of a good size, it is so pro- 

 ductive of flowers as to be sometimes closely covered 



