Mar. 1910.] Conditions in Central and Western Kansas. 341 



"Catalpa speciosa inhabits the borders of streams and ponds and fer- 

 tile, often undulating bottom lands, and is distributed from the valley of 

 the Vermilion river, in Illinois, through southern Illinois and Indiana, 

 western Kentucky and Tennessee, southeastern Missouri and northeast 

 Arkansas; through cultivation it has become naturalized in sout> _ j rn Ar- 

 kansas, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas. In southern Vmbis and 

 Indiana, where it probably grew to its largest size, the western catalpa 

 was formerly extremely abundant." ("The Silva of North America," 

 Charles Sprague Sargent, vol. VI, p. 89.) 



In addition to the native species, there is quite frequently to 

 be found in cultivation the Japanese species, Catalpa kcempferi 

 Sieb. & Zucc., in ornamental grounds, between which and the 

 American species there appear to be numerous hybrids. The 

 long, very narrow pods, borne in very thick clusters, and the 

 low habit of growth, render this tree easily distinguishable. 

 The latest botanical description of C. kcempferi, published by 

 Sir Joseph Hooker in the Botanical Magazine, is as follows : 



"A middle-sized tree, twenty-five to thirty feet high, with spreading, 

 rather brittle branches and copious foliage; main branches stout; shoots 

 green, smelling disagreeably when bruised; leaves about six inches long 

 and broad, of a bright pale green color, with brown glandular spots at 

 the junction of the nerves, broadly ovate, base rounded or cordate, margin 

 sinuate or three-lobed, the lateral lobes short, terminal, tapering to a 

 fine point, surfaces pubescent at first, then glabrous above, smooth or 

 roughish beneath; petiole two to five inches long, round; nerve axils 

 pubescent. Panicle terminal, erect, as long as the leaves, narrow or 

 broad; rachis with small brown petioled leaves at the base; flowers two 

 or three together at the ends of the branchlets of the panicle, horizontal 

 or drooping, pale yellow, sprinkled with minute red spots within; calyx 

 very small, lips rounded. Corolla campanulate, three-quarters of an inch 

 long, mouth oblique, upper lip short recurved, lower spreading; lobes all 

 rounded with crisped margins; in many of the flowers a small recurved, 

 tongue-shaped appendage to the corolla occurs on the corolla tube near its 

 base above. Capsule a foot long and one-third of an inch in diameter, 

 cylindrical, straight, smooth, brown; seeds compressed, velvety, produced 

 at each end in fine, silky hairs." 



There seem to be intergrading forms between the two Amer- 

 ican species of catalpa. Whether these variants are ecological 

 in character, assuming C. catalpa to be indigenous, or whether, 

 by means of occasional early-blooming individuals of the South- 

 eastern or occasional later-blooming individuals of the West- 

 ern or hardy catalpa, hybrids have arisen between the two 

 forms, it is on present evidence impossible to say. /It is cer- 

 tainly true that intermediate forms exist. To the practical 

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