436 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
GROWING CATALPA SPECIOSA FROM SEED. 
Probably no forest tree is more difficult to grow from seed than is Catalpa 
Speciosa, vet in none are the seeds more generally fertile. 
A heavy rain may wash the seeds out of the ground, or may cover them 
so deeply as to prevent their breaking through the crust of earth. 
Since the seed are very scarce and difficult to obtain, in purity, care should 
be observed in planting to economize the seed. 
The germ, or seed proper, consists of a pair of flattened discs, one-eighth 
inch diameter, which are connected and are enveloped in a light winged cover- 
ing of fibrous nature, each end terminating with a broad pencil of filaments as 
in Figure 1. 
This covering is quickly dissolved by moisture after planting, when the 
germ or true seed emerges as in Figure 2. 
The two discs open out like a bean, and form the cotyledons or first pair 
of leaves as in Figure 3. 
The radicle or root extending downward is connected with the discs by a 
crook-necked, tender stem, like that of a Lima bean. The stored energy of the 
plant pushes the seed upward with such force that many seed are destroyed 
by breaking the crook-neck stem. This occurs when too great a depth of earth 
covers the seed. 
The soil should be, preferably, a fine sandy loam, prepared as carefully 
as for small garden seeds. 
Shallow, broad furrows may be eighteen inches apart for garden, or three 
feet apart for horse cultivation. 
The seed may be strewn in the furrows, twenty-five or thirty seeds to the 
foot, covering carefully and quickly as they are strewn to prevent the wind 
from carrying them away. 
The covering must not exceed one-fourth inch depth. 
The critical period is during the first two weeks after the plants appear. 
Hoeing should be promptly done to prevent choking with grass and weeds. 
After the second pair of leaves have been formed the plants will be perfectly 
hardy and may be plowed. 
Clean, level cultivation is necessary to promote good growth. 
When the leaves fall in autumn, they should be taken up, tied in bunches 
of probably one hundred, and heeled in for the winter, or shipped as may be 
desirable. 
In heeling in, avoid wet locations, place the bunches in shallow trenches 
