PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 235 
catalpa. In sixteen years better poles may be grown than are now used by 
any corporation. 
The white cedar, which is now used, has been from eighty to one hun- 
dred years struggling for an existence, while red cedar is of still slower growth. 
The expense of iron poles precludes the use of metal for long lines outside 
the cities. 
MINING TIMBERS. 
The enormous quantity of wood used in supporting the roofs of mines in 
the United States, which must be renewed frequently, demands the atten- 
tion of mining engineers, investors and statesmen, as to what shall be used in 
the near future. 
Even now, many of the coal and other mines are transporting timbers 
hundreds of miles. The durability of catalpa wood under similar situations, 
and its rapid growth, commend it for this purpose. It has ample strength 
and resists the germs of decay completely. 
While metal may be desirable to replace wood in mining operations, yet 
the cost of metal must be so great as to induce the planting of catalpa timber 
for this use. 
WHERE CATALPA SPECIOSA ORIGINATED. 
As has often been told in ARBORICULTURE there are three prominent vari- 
eties of Catalpa: Aempferti, from Japan, introduced into Europe and the 
United States since 1852; bignonioides, a native of the Southern States, from 
Virginia westward through Louisiana, and in all the territory south of the 
Ohio River. Neither of these varieties has any economical value, yet both 
have been broadly disseminated throughout the world, and to a very large 
extent mistaken for the Catalpa of which we have had much to say. 
Catalpa speciosa, up to the year 1818, was totally unknown in any portion 
of the world except a restricted location along the immediate valley of the 
Lower Wabash River and a few tributary streams. It occurred between north 
latitude 27 degrees and latitude 38 degrees, 4o minutes, and between longitude 
87 degrees, 30 minutes and 89 degrees west from Greenwich—only, however, 
in small areas along these streams. A few sporadic groves were found where 
the seed had floated a short distance down the Mississippi River. 
But in Missouri Catalpa bignonoides is common, and here on the Miss- 
issippi the two varieties occur, causing innumerable hybrids, with few of pure 
speciosa. 
WHERE THE CATALPA HAS BEEN PLANTED. 
During the Nineteenth Century the Catalpa has been largely distributed. 
In some instances it has been disseminated by enthusiasts who, having learned 
the high value of the timber, have planted it in other localities. Others, ad- 
miring the flowers, have planted Catalpa trees for ornament. By these experi- 
ments we are now enabled to determine the range to which the Catalpa is 
adapted. 
