364 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 
BIGNONIACEAE. BIGNONIA FAMILY. 
Genus CATALPA. 
A genus of four or five species of trees, natives of the West 
Indies, North America, Japan and China. Leaves simple, op- 
posite or in whorls of three. Flowers in terminal panicles; 
calyx deeply two-lipped; corolla inflated, bell-shaped, the five 
lobed border more or less two-lipped and wavy. Fruit a long 
slender hanging pod; seed, two-winged with silky fringe. 
Catalpa speciosa. Hardy Catalpa. Western Catalpa. 
Leaves large, opposite or in threes, heart-shaped at base, 
long-pointed, thick, firm, dark green above, falling after the 
first severe autumn frost. Flowers appear in June in large 
panicles, very conspicuous and pretty; corolla about two inches 
long, nearly white, faintly spotted, the lower lobes notched; 
calyx purple. Fruit nine to twenty inches long, about one-half 
inch in diameter at the middle and tapering towards both ends. 
It ripens in autumn, generally remains on the tree until spring, 
and then splits into two concave valves. The seed is light 
brown, about an inch long and one-third of an inch wide; the 
wings are rounded at the ends and terminate with a fringe of 
silky hairs. The ends of the branches die in winter without 
forming a terminal bud. A large and important tree in the 
forests within its range, where it attains a height of over 100 
feet and a diameter of three to four and one-half feet. 
Distribution Borders of streams and lakes and fertile and 
inundated bottom lands in southern Illinois and Indiana, west- 
ern Kentucky and Tennessee, southeastern Missouri and north- 
eastern Arkansas. 
Propagation.—By seeds, and it is said by cuttings. 
Properties of wood.—Soft, light, not strong, coarse grained, 
very durable in contact with soil. Specific gravity 0.4165; 
weight of a cubic foot 25.96 pounds. 
Uses —The Hardy Catalpa is not a very hardy tree in this 
section, and probably most of the specimens of it growing north 
of central Iowa are more or less injured by our winters; but 
they often hold on well in favorable locations as far north as St. 
Paul and Minneapolis, and form good small trees. They are 
