The Pod-bearers 



however, and good specimen trees may be seen in nurseries and 

 in private grounds in the East, It is hardy as far north as New 

 England and Ontario, and is one of the most desirable native 

 ornamental trees. 



It is a small tree, rarely reaching 50 feet in height, with 

 wide, graceful head of slender, pendulous branches, grey bark 

 as smooth as that of a beech, and four little winter buds enclosed 

 in the hollow base of each leaf stem. The leaves are compound, 

 a foot long, of seven to eleven oval, broad leaflets, diminishing in 

 size toward the base, pale beneath, and turning a clear yellow 

 in the autumn. 



The flowers are large, white, pea-like, fragrant, and borne 

 in drooping, terminal clusters, often a foot long. The pods are 

 thin, smooth, few-seeded. Virgilia is the garden name of this 

 tree. It is called so in the nursery catalogues. The wood is 

 yellow, and its sap yields a dye of that colour. 



These are the botanical characters of the yellow-wood. 

 One can easily identify it. But to remember the tree, to have 

 it indelibly impressed upon the memory, one must see it in blossom. 

 It is a "shy bloomer"; at least it never blooms in two successive 

 years, and rarely does it cover itself with flowers oftener than 

 twice or three times in a decade. That is quite enough to justify 

 planting it as a lawn tree, with evergreens for a background — a 

 frame for the picture when it comes. 



The virgilia is always beautiful. But in wealth of bloom, as 

 I saw it in the gardens and parks about Boston in the summer of 

 1904, it surpassed all other trees. Every twig ended in a long, 

 loose raceme in which each pure white blossom had room to reach 

 its full development — to get its fill of light and sun and air. The 

 weight of the flowers made every twig bend outward and down- 

 ward. Each tree was overspread for days with this marvellous 

 veil of white, and out of each came all day long the low murmur 

 of contented bees. 



The tree is rare and local, hanging over mountain streams and 

 edging the woodlands of its range, the highlands of western North 

 Carolina, eastern Tennessee, central Kentucky and northern Ala- 

 bama. Its beauty is much enhanced by cultivation. The hand- 

 some foliage turns yellow before it falls, and all through the 

 summer and on through the autumn the pendant clusters of 

 dainty pods are highly ornamental. 



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