22 



resemblance to the Catalpa's sprawl, but as it grows 

 older it attains a far more lofty and dignified aspect 

 than the Catalpa reaches. But in leaf the two trees are 

 very similar, and this, I presume, is one reason why 

 the two trees are so often confused with each other. 

 However, though slightly similar in form and closely 

 alike in leaf, they are widey different in flower, fruit 

 and bark. The Catalpa belongs to the Bignoniaces or 

 Bignonia family, while the Paulownia belongs to the 

 ScrophulariacecB or Figwort family. The bark of the 

 Paulownia is very much like that of the Ailanthus, 

 dusky, often smoky gray, with fine, silvery flashings 

 of streaks through the gray. Its leaf is la'rge, some- 

 times a foot long, and generally quite hairy on the 

 underside. Early in the spring this tree, if the win- 

 ter has not been too severe, for its buds frost kill 

 very easily, breaks forth into lovely bloom, sending out 

 beautiful, violet-colored, heavily-fragrant flowers of 

 long funnel form, with flaring corolla lobes. In winter 

 it is a very interesting tree, because of its conspicuous 

 fruit and bud clusters of next spring's flowers. They 

 are easily seen on the upper branches of the tree, clearly 

 and distinctly against the sky, resembling bunches of 

 grapes with the grapes picked oflf. The fruit of the 

 tree is a dry egg-shaped capsule about an inch and a 

 half long, strongly pointed, and densely packed with 

 the flat-winged brown seeds. 



Proceeding westwards again, just beyond the Japan 

 barberry, you come upon Rhodotypos, and a little back 

 of it and beyond, toward the northwest, stands a fine 

 young, fern-leaved beech of the European variety. 



