196 



TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



Catdlpa Catdipa. 



scented. Flowers: white, mottled with purple inside and spotted with yellow; 

 fragrant ; growing in an erect, terminal panicle. Calyx: irregular, or two- 

 lipped. Corolla : campanulate; two-lipped, with five spreading, crimped lobes. 

 Perfect stamens: two; rarely four in two pairs. Sterile stamens: three ; rarely one. 

 Pistil: one. Pods : .six to twelve inches long; linear; hanging, and containing 

 winged and fragrant seeds. 



The catalpa, as the aborigines called it, is one of our most 

 attractive trees, and it is now much seen throughout the middle 



states. Before being so widely natural- 

 ized it was confined to the south. Until 

 taken in the hand and Josely inspected 

 the beauty of its blossoms is hardly appre- 

 ciated. But many of our choicest exotics 

 are not more exquisite. The broad, 

 vivid green leaves form for them a plain 

 and artistic background. Within the pear- 

 shaped, glossy and reddish buds these 

 lovely blossoms are compressed into 

 round balls, in much the same way that 

 an accordion is folded together. It is quite interesting to 

 press a large bud between the thumb and fingers, when it 

 will divide into the two-lipped caly.x, and the petals can then 

 be stretched out to their fullest extent. When they are allowed 

 to unfold naturally the stamens and pistil are the first to push 

 themselves upward from their cramped position, and as they do 

 so they bear along with them the pliable corolla. Its lobes are 

 the last of all to open and admit the insects within its richly 

 coloured centre. The crinkling of the lobes is a feature that 

 the flower never loses, and which is owing to their former posi- 

 tion in the bud. The pods, especially those of young trees in 

 cultivation, grow very long. When they have become dried and 

 brown, little country boys are credited with finding them good 

 to smoke. Their flavour, however, is very strong, like that of 

 weeds, and they burn the throat most horribly. 



C. speciosa, larger Indian bean, often reaches one hundred and 

 twenty feet high and has longer pods than the preceding one. 



