Paulownia ^495 



At Swanmore Cottage, Hants, Mr. Molyneux showed me a well-shaped tree, 

 35 ft. by 7 J ft., in 1906, which flowers occasionally but never ripens seed. At 

 Ashstead Park, Surrey, the seat of Mr. P. Ralli, there was in 1892 a fine tree, 

 45 ft- by 7^ ft., which flowers freely in warm seasons.^ At Whitbourn Court, near 

 Worcester, Sir R. Harrington has a tree which he raised from seed gathered in 

 the Vatican gardens at Rome in 1888, which in 1905 was 23 ft. by 4 ft., and with 

 a head 25 ft. in diameter. In Cornwall, where the climate does not suit it so 

 well, the largest I have seen, at Scorrier, was about 25 ft. high in 191 1. 



There are specimens 20 to 30 ft. high in the Kew and Cambridge Botanic 

 Gardens ; at Grayswood, Haslemere ; in several gardens in Kent ; at East Cowes 

 Castle in the Isle of Wight; at Hursley Park, Winchester; at Abbotsbury^; at 

 Bicton ^ ; at Trevarno,* Cornwall ; and at Singleton Abbey, Swansea. 



In Scotland, the only places where I have seen it are at Castle Kennedy, 

 where in 1906 I saw a poor-looking tree about 25 ft. high, which evidently does 

 not like the climate ; and at Tyninghame, East Lothian, where Mr. Brotherston 

 measured a tree 3 ft. 9 in. in girth at 3 ft. from the ground, which has been in 

 bad health for years, so we may conclude that the summers of Scotland are too 

 short and cold for it. 



In Ireland, there are two old but not very thriving trees at Glasnevin; but at 

 Mount Usher, there is a fine tree nearly 40 ft. high, and over 6 ft. in girth. 



In America,^ it does not flower regularly north of New York ; but is fairly 

 hardy in sheltered positions as far north as Massachusetts, where the flower- 

 buds are killed every winter ; and it can be cultivated as a foliage plant even in 

 Montreal. 



Timber 



In Japan, it is known as ^v'z; and produces a very light, dull white, shining 

 wood, which is used for making boxes, musical instruments, linings of safes, 

 clogs, doors, and in cabinet work. As large planks are not usually obtainable, 

 Paulownia boards are made by joining small pieces together with paste and bamboo 

 pegs, as shown at the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition at Shepherd's Bush, London. 

 On my last visit to Japan I saw well-made wardrobes of this wood, which is preferred 

 to all others for this purpose on account of its resistance to damp. Clothes kept in 

 drawers of this wood are said to remain free from mould during the rainy season. 

 These wardrobes are sometimes framed in the wood of Diospyros Kaki, the heart- 

 wood of which is black mottled with grey, and very handsome. The large braziers, 

 called Hibashi in Japan, are often made of sections of the trunk of Paulownia turned 

 in such a way as to show its beautiful grain. (H. J. E.) 



1 Gard. Chron. xii. 440 (1892). ^ Fruit was sent to Kew from Abbotsbury in January 1902. 



s Quart. Journ. Forestry, i. 54 (1907). 



1 Cf. Gard. Chron. xxvi. 211 (1899). In The Field, 1908, p. 233, the tree at Trevarno, said to be twenty years old 

 and 30 ft. high, is reported to have produced a few years previously a good crop of fruit. 



° Rehder, in Bailey, Cycl. Amer. Hort. 1223 (1901). Britton and Brown, Illustrated Flora Northern U.S. iii. 157 

 (1898), state that it has escaped from cultivation in southern New York, in New Jersey, and in the Southern States. 



VI 



