HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 233 



it might be bought for little more than an Ailanthus. I am much mistaken 

 if it remains long in this undignified state. With some indifferent qualities, 

 it has many superior ones. It has coarse foliage, but offers a grateful shade. 

 Its stiff, formal shoots are unsightly and ungraceful, but its rapidity of 

 growth more than covers these faults. But in searching for a defect as a 

 set-off to the gorgeousness of its blossoms, we encounter considerable diffi- 

 culty. Those who have not been favored with a sight of their rare beauties, 

 can scarcely form a correct idea of them. They may fancy to themselves a 

 very vigorous Catalpa tree, which by some magical stroke of floral power has 

 been made to produce in magnificent profusion, large racemes of Gloxinia 

 fioivers, of a fine purple color. So great, indeed, is the resemblance, that 

 with but little stretching, our fancy might be real. We might believe that 

 the presiding genius of open air culture had entered the lists against her of 

 the exotic department, and by seizing on one of her most treasured and 

 delicate of hot-house forms, throwing them on one of her sturdiest subjects 

 in the very teeth of winter, before at least sweet smiling May has well 

 unfolded her all-longed-for lap, and there by bidding them bloom unscathed, 

 unhurt, had claimed a triumph over her defeated rival. But fancies, however 

 vivid, are but a poor substitute for facts ; those who planted Paulownias a 

 few years ago, will now have them in flower, and those who would rather 

 see than imagine one of the most beautiful flowering trees in cultivation, 

 would do well to call on their friends who have them. Those who live in 

 the northern part of the city of Philadelphia, may find a beatiful show of 

 them at the residence of Mr. McCullough, corner of Germantown avenue 

 and Carpenter street, but there are single flowering specimens in many 

 other localities. ' 



In addition to the rapid growth of the Paulownia, and the beauty and 

 earliness of its blossoms, there is yet another point in which it will be 

 favorably viewed by the many: it is not a difficult tree to transplant. 

 Though, in another place, I have shown that there are in reality no trees 

 difficult to transplant, when the true principles of the operation are under- 

 stood ; yet the neglect and ill treatment some trees will endeavor to submit 

 to, are so generally understood by the term "easy to grow," that we may 

 perhaps correctly employ it here. The roots are so fleshy, and the wood so 

 spongy, that the tree has almost a Cactus-like power of maintaining its 

 vitality; and even in the matter of soil, I do not think I have met with a 

 single instance of its failing to do well in the most varied. 



Thomas Meehan. 



