20 FAMILIAR TREES 



Cheshire. "Ear-rings" and "Watch-guards" are 

 other popular names from this last-mentioned county. 

 The Yorkshire " Lady's Fingers '' and the Lincolnshire 

 " Golden Drops '' are, perhaps, in most districts pre- 

 occupied by other plants ; but it is somewhat remark- 

 able that we only have records of the use of " Golden 

 Shower" and "Golden Rain" from Shropshire and 

 Surrey respectively, whilst by far the most widely dis- 

 tributed popular name for the tree is the less 

 imaginative " Golden Chain." 



The Laburnum reaches a height of twenty or 

 thirty feet, retaining a smooth grey-green rind on 

 which the " lenticels " or cork-warts are somewhat 

 conspicuous. A thin paper-like epiderm is, in fact, 

 sloughed off by the shoots at an early stage, so that 

 the permanent surface is a secondary periderm. As it 

 is not a fast-growing tree, its wood is dense and often 

 shows very regularly concentric growth, the few outer 

 rings of yellow sapwood sharply contrasting with the 

 heart, which varies from a yellowish- brown through 

 greenish-brown to black. It is this heartwood, which 

 will take an excellent polish, that has gained the tree 

 its common French name. Faux Ebe'nier, and gave it 

 in ancient times the name of Corsican Ebony. A, 

 glance at the photomicrograph of the wood, one of the 

 most beautiful results of this method of study, will 

 suggest the complexity of its structure. The four 

 annual rings, of which parts are here shown, are seen 

 to be crossed by more than a dozen distinct pith- 

 rays; and the spring- wood, or inner third of each 

 ring, shows the large open pores or vessels crowded in 

 groups of six to eight between these rays, making an 



