Mar. 1910.] Conditions in Central and Western Kansas. 331 



In the early years of catalpa enthusiasm these facts were 

 not widely known and many plantings have been the cause of 

 untold disappointment as well as great financial loss. Many of 

 these trees have been seriously injured in severe winters and 

 later made but slow, uneven growth. Others have been hardy 

 but made only low shrubby growth. Moreover, the hardy ca- 

 talpa when planted on dry or poor soil has not made a very 

 successful growth, so that the general information concerning 

 the catalpa is not very definite. 



On good soils the hardy catalpa has been a very profitable 

 and very satisfactory tree, producing a crop of posts and poles 

 in from seven to ten years, and then renewing itself from the 

 sprouts or coppice growth, sometimes producing a second crop 

 in less time than that required for the first crop. 



The catalpa trees planted at Ogallah and Dodge City were 

 evidently the inferior species, and the soil and location being 

 unfavorable for the catalpa the trees at these Stations are 

 practically valueless. 



So general is the interest in the catalpa and so urgent the 

 need of general information that the following extracts from 

 Bulletin No. 108 of the Kansas Experiment Station are re- 

 printed here. 



The genus Catalpa belongs to the family of the BIGNONIACE^E. 

 Of the six species, two, C. c&talpa Karst. and C. speciosa Ward., 

 are native to North America. Following are the botanical 

 descriptions of the American species : 



Catalpa catalpa (Linn.) Karsten. 



Bignonia catalpa Linnaeus, Spec. PL, ed. 1, II, 622 (1753). 



Catalpa bignonioides Walter, Flora Caroliniana, 64 (1788). 



Catalpa cordifolia Moench, Meth. 464 (1794). 



Catalpa ternifolia Cavanilles, Desc. PI. 26 (1802). 



Catalpa syringe folia Sims, in Bot. Mag. XXVII, t. 1094 (1808). 



Catalpa communis Du Mont de Courset, Bot. Cult., ed. 2, III, 242 



(1811). 

 Catalpa catalpa Karsten, Deutsch Fl. 927 (1882). 



"Flowers in many-flowered, crowded panicles; corolla thickly spotted 

 on the inner surface. Fruit slender. Leaves slightly acuminate. 



"A tree, rarely sixty feet in height, with a short trunk, sometimes three 

 or four feet in diameter, and stout, elongated brittle branches, which form 

 a broad head and dichotomous branchlets. The bark of the trunk varies 

 from a quarter to a third of an inch in thickness, and is light brown 

 tinged with red on the surface, which separates in large, thin, irregular 

 scales. The branchlets, when they first appear, are green shaded with 



