562 



XEW EXGLAXD TREES IX WIXTEU. 



HARDY CATALPA 

 Cigar Tree, Indian Bean, Western Catalpa. 



Catalpa speciosa "Warder. 



HVniT A tall tree reaching 100 ft. in lieig-lit and 4 ft. in trunk 



diamenter in tlie Ohio basin, of smaller dimensions in New England 



■n-ith slender branches, furniing a comparatively narrow round-topped 

 head. 



B.VRK — Reddish to grayish brown, with longitudinal scaly ridges. 



T'WIGS — Stout, smooth or slightly short-downy, reddish to yellowish- 

 brown, the tips of twigs generally winter killed. LEXTICELS — 

 conspicuous, rather large and numerous. PITH — white, wide, occasion- 

 ally chambered at the nodes. 



LEAF-SCARS — Opposite or more frequently 3 at a node, large 

 and conspicuous, round to elliptical, with depressed center. STIPULE- 

 SCARS — absent. BE'XE'LE-SCAI;S — conspicuous, often raised, forming a 

 closed ring. 



DVDS — Terminal bud absent, lateral buds small, semi-spherical, 

 generally under 2 mm. high. BUEi-SCALES — brown, loosely overlapping, 

 about 5 or 6 visible. 



PRMT — A long cylindrical capsule, S-20 inches in length, with nu- 

 merous flattened, winged, \\-hiie-liair>-. fringed seeds, persistent on 

 the tree through winter. Tlie photograph of llie capsule is reduced to 

 about 75 natural size. 



COMI'.VRISONS — The 3 large circular leaf-scars at a node with 

 complete ring of bundle-scars renders the Catalpa twig easilj' recog- 

 nizable. The long cigar-like fruits that hang on the tree supply a 

 distincti^'e habit character. A ^-ery closely related southern and less 

 hard>" species the Commcm Catalpa [Catalpa bignonioides Walt.] was 

 formerl>' more planted than the Hardy Catalpa. It is a smaller tree 

 with a rather more spreading habit but is most readily distinguished 

 from the westerji species at the time of flowering. 



DISTRIBITIOX — X'ot native in X'ew England but planted as an orna- 

 mental shade tree and tor timber. It gr^'ws native along borders of 

 streams and ponds and rich often inundated bottom-land: southern 

 Indiana. Illinois, and ^Missouri south into Kentucky. Tennessee and 

 Arkansas. 



M'OOD — Light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, -^-erj' durable in contact 

 with the soil, light brown with thin nearly white sapwood of 1 or 2 

 la^'ers ''t annual grc^wth: largely used for railroad ties, fence posts 

 and rails and occasionally for furniture and the Interior finish of 

 houses. 



