Paulownia Imperialis. 343 



PAULOWNIA IMPERIALIS. 



This fine tree, although so lately introduced into this country, 

 is fast becoming a favorite. Its heavy, rich foliage, and hand- 

 some flowers, make it a conspicuous object in shrubberies, and 

 it is found to be quite hardy. The following account of the 

 Paulownia is taken from a good English authority, and from 

 information afforded by an extensive nurseryman in New-York. 

 The Paulownia is a native of Japan, and grows, in that 

 country, to the height of thirty or forty feet, with a trunk two 

 or three feet in diameter. The branches are few, but strong ; 

 and they proceed from the trunk at right angles. The leaves 

 are very large and broad ; and the flowers, which singly re- 

 semble those of the Fox-glove, are produced in large terminal 

 panicles, like those of the Horse-chestnut, or the Catalpa. At 

 a little distance, indeed, the Paulownia strongly resembles the 

 latter tree, except in the color of its flowers ; but the seed-ves- 

 sels are very different; that of the Catalpa being a long, 

 horn-like pod ; and that of the Paulownia an oval-shaped 

 nut. The Paulownia is in the Natural Order, Scrophularinse, 

 and the Linnaean Class and Order, Didynamia, Angiospermia. 

 According to our authority, the method of its introduction into 

 Europe, was the following. 



In 1834, M. Neumann, the chief gardener in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, at Paris, received some seeds, in a little China pot, 

 from Japan. He sowed them in a flower-pot, which he placed 

 in the hot-house ; but only one seed vegetated. This plant he 

 nourished with great care ; but it grew slowly, and appeared 

 sickly. As he observed that after it lost its leaves in Autumn, 

 the heat of the stove made it bud again immediately, he felt 

 convinced that the stove was too hot for it ; and he removed it 

 to the green-house, which evidently suited it better, though 

 still it grew slowly. He now took some cuttings from his 

 plant, which struck readily ; and he then ventured to remove 

 the parent plant into the open air. It immediately began to 

 grow vigorously; and though only six inches high when 

 planted in spring, it became three feet high before autumn, 



