io8 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



The Tree at 

 Home. 



at various angles and several of them 

 leaning upon the stone coping with their 

 branches trailing far over the wall and 

 towards the ground, but their heads 

 united in one spread of beauty, hiding 

 all except the upper windows of the 

 house. The planting was probably one 

 of chance, for a southern innkeeper rare- 

 ly plants for effect. But, whether by 

 inspiration or by chance, the glory of 

 that little courtyard with its group of 

 Judas-trees in full bloom was pleasant to 

 see, and in the summertime the large 

 rounded leaves spread a cool canopy, 

 beneath which the wayfarer might rest. 



The Judas-tree is rather slow in 

 growth, a little difficult of increase, 

 and is best transplanted 

 young. Throughout the 

 south of Europe it is 

 common but increases in size and num- 

 bers as one travels east, till at Constan- 

 tinople its beauty during the late spring 

 is remarkable, the trees bursting with 

 flower-clusters from the topmost branch 

 even to the ground level in one blaze of 

 colour. From Palestine it reaches away 

 into Asia as far as Persia and Afghanistan 

 and is valued everywhere alike for its 

 beauty, for its flowers — which are eaten 

 as a salad and preserved as pickle for their 

 pleasant taste, and for its shoots, which 

 are used for making baskets and light 

 wicker-work. Though hard, enduring, 

 capable of a fine polish, and finely 

 streaked with black, green, and yellow 

 markings, its wood is too variable to be 

 much valued, though used at times for 

 small curios. 



The Judas- tree has long been known 

 in England, having first reached this 



country in 1 596, and here and there in 

 old gardens very old trees may be found. 



One such tree was grow- 

 'lardens. ing in Bath some few 

 years since and said to 

 be 300 years old at least, with a girth of 

 6 feet half-way up the stem; other fine 

 ones are at Richmond, at Dulwich, in 

 the Isle of Wight, Syon, and many other 

 places in the south. In northern gardens 

 it is tender and rarely seen except upon 

 walls and sheltered house-fronts, and 

 trees are grown in Scotland in this way. 

 It does best in rich, open loam with a 

 well-drained bottom,a warm aspect, and 

 some shelter ; it branches freely when 

 young, but with age forms a rounded 

 spreading head and bent like an old 

 orchard tree, with shoots and branches 

 of a deep purplish-black. It never grows 

 tall, fine trees, with a circumference of 

 nearly 100 feet, not rising much above 

 2 o in height when fully exposed , though 

 in warmer countries it often grows 

 higher. The flowers appear in May and 

 June, before the leaves, and are carried 

 in dense clusters bursting directly upon 

 very short stalks from the stems and 

 main branches and sometimes from the 

 trunk itself, until the whole tree is out- 

 lined in brilliant rosy-purple flowers, 

 which draw the bees from far and near. 

 Though slow - growing, it begins to 

 flower when small and a group of such 

 trees is soon conspicuous for its beauty 

 at quite a distance, forming in time a 

 natural arbour little less handsome for its 

 foliage in summer than when in bloom. 

 The leaves are of a distinct bluish-green 

 in colour, the sunlight striking through 

 them with a peculiar translucent effect; 



