CHAP. XLI. LEGUJ\JINA N CEiE. VIRGl'LIyf. 565 



France, and is strikingly exemplified in the remains of the garden at Mar- 

 boenf, near the Barriere de Chaillot, in Paris, where some very large sophoras 

 and robinias are growing together. The pendulous variety is well deserving 

 of culture as an object of singularity and beauty; and, where it is desired to 

 cover a surface with intense green foliage during summer, for example, a dry 

 hillock, a plant of this variety, placed on the centre, will accomplish the pur- 

 pose effectually. 



Soil, Propagation, Sfc. Any free soil will suit this tree; but, in cold climates, 

 it ought to be placed in one rather poor and dry, that it may be compelled to 

 make shorter shoots ; which, of course, being less succulent, are more easily 

 ripened. Where it is desired to have trees that will soon come into flower, 

 seedling plants should be grafted with scions. The tree will grow by cuttings, 

 more especially of the roots, and also by layers from a flowering tree. 



Statistics. The largest tree in the neighbourhood of London is at Syon, where it is 57ft. high ; the 

 diameter of the trunk is 3 ft., and of the head 80 ft. It flowers beautifully in most years. The oldest 

 tree near London is at Purser's Cross, where it flowered, for the first time in England, in August 

 1807, as noticed p. 72. In Kensington Gardens, in the north-west corner, is an old tree, about 30 ft. 

 high, which flowers occasionally. At Kew, there is a tree 50 ft. high. In the Mile End Nursery, 

 there is a tree 35 ft. high, the trunk 2 ft. in diameter, and the diameter of the head 30 ft. At Hamp- 

 stead, at Mount Grove, there is a tree 38 ft. high ; and at Kenwood, one, 38 years planted, 32ft. high. 

 In Buckinghamshire, at Temple House, a tree, 40 years planted, is 18 ft. high. In Cambridgeshire, in 

 the Cambridge Botanic Garden, there are two handsome trees, both 50 ft. high, which have flowered 

 occasionally. In Cheshire, at Eaton Hall, 13 years planted, and 6 ft. high. In Hertfordshire, at 

 Cheshunt, 6 years planted, and 10 ft. high. In Oxfordshire, in the Oxford Botanic Garden, 20 years 

 planted, and 35 ft. high. In Worcestershire, at Croome, 70 years planted, and 35 ft. high, the dia- 

 meter of the trunk S>ft. 4 in., and of the head 40 ft: the soil a dark sandy loam. In Scotland, in 

 Haddingtonshire, at Tyningham, 42 ft. high. In Perthshire, at Kinfauns Castle, 8 years planted, 

 and 6 ft. high. In Ireland, near Dublin, at Castletown, 35 ft. high ; at Terenure, 15 years planted, 

 and 10 ft. high. In Louth, at Oriel Temple, 50 years planted, and 35 ft. high. In Munster, at Castle 

 Freke, 13 ft. high. In France, at Paris, in the Jardin des Plantes, 100 years planted, and 64ft. high, 

 the diameter of the head 40 ft. : in the Rue des Vignes, a tree, which stood in what was formerly 

 the garden of Marbceuf, was 60 ft. high, and.flowered and ripened seeds almost every year; but it has 

 lately been cut down, with several others in the same garden, the ground being about to be built on. 

 I nthe Botanic Garden at Toulon, a tree, 50 years planted, is 60 ft. high. At Nantes, in the nursery of M. 

 Nerri£res, a tree, 30 years planted, is 25 ft. high In Saxony, at Worlitz, 20 years planted, 

 and 25 ft. high. In Austria, at Laxenburg, 16 years planted, and 18 ft. high ; at Briick on the 

 Leytha, 45 years planted, and 50 ft. high. In Prussia, in the Botanic .Garden ; at Berlin, 30 years 

 planted, and 25 ft. high ; at Sans Souci, 20 years planted, and 20 ft. high. In Bavaria, at Munich, 

 in the Botanic Garden, 20 years planted, and 25 ft. high. 



Commercial Statistics. Price, in London, of 2 years' seedlings, 50s. per 

 100, of grafted plants 2s. 6d., and of the pendulous variety 5s.; at Bollwyller, 

 of the species 1 franc and 50 cents each, and the variegated variety 3 francs ; 

 at New York, the species, and the pendulous variety, 1 dollar each. 



Genus II. 



m 



VIRGFLIyi L. The Virgilia. Lin. Syst. Decandria Monogynia. 



Identification. Lam. 111., t. 346. : Pers. Ench., 1. p. 453. ; R. Brown in Hort. Kew., ed. 2. vol. 3. p. 4.; 



Dec. Prod., 2. p. 98. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 111. 

 Derivation. Named by Lamarck in honour of the poet Virgil, whose Georgics entitle him to botanic 



commemoration. 



Description, fyc. There is only one hardy species, a deciduous low tree. 



^ 1. V. lu n tea Michx. The yeUow-zvooded Virgilia, or Yellow Wood. 



Identification. Michx. Fil. Arb. Amer., 3. p. 266. t. 3. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 98. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 112. 

 Engravings. Delaun. Herb Amat., t. 197. ; Michx. Fil. Arb. Amer., 3. p. 226. t. 3. ; and the plate 

 of this tree in our Second Volume. 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Leaves pinnate; leaflets 9 — 11; alternate, ovate, pointed, 

 smooth. A tree, in its native country rarely exceeding 40 ft. in height, with 

 a trunk 1 ft. in diameter, covered with a greenish bark, having a smooth 

 surface. The leaves, on young trees, are from 1 ft. to 1^ ft. in length, and 

 on old trees not above half that size. The flowers form white pendulous 

 racemes, a little larger than those of the Robin?/? Pseud-zfcacia, but not so 

 odoriferous. The seeds are like those of the robinia, and, in America, ripe 



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