THE PRACTICAL FLOWER GARDEN 



try to reproduce or to improve upon them 

 to be successful in raising our trees from seeds. 



The Catalpa speciosa also seeds itseM readily, 

 and, wherever a parent tree grows near a 

 shrubbery or spot where the grass is not 

 mown, there one can find every year a few 

 young trees ready to be transplanted early in 

 the spring. No tree is more decorative than the 

 catalpa with its beautiful leaves and panicles 

 of orchid-like flowers. It also lives to great age, 

 and its twisted, gnarled trunks and branches 

 rival in beauty those of the old apple tree. 



Nature sows her seeds when ripened, and 

 the seeds of maple, birch and ehn ripen and 

 fall to the ground between April and June; 

 they should then be gathered and planted 

 without delay as they retain their vitahty 

 for a short time only — ^perhaps six weeks. 

 They germinate soon after planting. 



The germ of life in the seeds of all nut- 

 bearing trees survives but a season, and 

 hence the nuts should be planted in the au- 

 tumn as soon as ripe and dry. 



110 



