FOREST TREES. 



127 



red cedars suffered severely, and thousands were killed. Seeds 

 and plants of the Catalpa tree of our Eastern States were sent 

 to Europe very early (1726), and Loudon in 1838 refers to a large' 

 number of specimens growing in Great Britian and various 

 countries of Europe, giving their size at that time, but the 

 variation in this respect is fully as great as seen here in iis 

 native country. One tree planted at Fulham Palace one hun- 

 dred and fifty years, was only twenty-five feet high, while an- 

 other growing in sandy loam at Kenwood, forty years planted, 

 was 40 feet high with a stem nearly eighteen inches in diameter, 

 while another at Croome, in Worcestershire, of the same age was 

 sixty feet high. In France there are many trees of much larger 

 size, and one at the time named, in the Botanical Garden of 

 Avranches, twenty-nine years planted, had reached a hight of 

 eighty-nine feet, with a stem twenty inches in diameter. I 

 refer to these trees not as unusually large, but merely because 

 most American authors refer to the Catalpa as a small tree, 

 and Humphry Marshall in "The American Grove," 1785, 

 p. 21, says the Catalpa tree " rises to the hight of about twelve 

 to fifteen feet," or about the size of a good three-year-old 

 specimen. The young plants usually make a late growth in 

 the fall, especially if planted in a rich, moist soil, and the soft, 

 unripened wood will be frequently killed, even in localities 

 where the trees after becoming well established will seldom 

 or never be injured by cold. A handsome ornamental tree, 

 but the branches are liable to be broken out or split off from 

 the main stems when the trees are planted in exposed situa- 

 tions. 



Frank J. Scott, in his superb work '^Suburban Home 

 Grounds," in speaking of the Catalpa very truthfully says : 



Though planted largely in the Northern States, and consid- 

 ered hardy, its beauty would be more uniform, and we should 

 of tener see fine specimens if, when first planted, it were regarded 

 as half hardy, and cared for accordingly." This tree is a native 

 of Virginia, southward to Florida, and westward to Louisiana. 

 The Catalpa is also found wild in Southern Indiana, Kentucky, 

 Illinois, and Missouri, where in the rich bottom lands it grows 

 to a larger size than in the South and Eastern States, but 

 recently it has been claimed that the Catalpas found in these 

 Western States are of a different variety or species, and the 

 late Dr. J. H. Warder, of Ohio, gave to this western form the 

 name of Catalpa speciosa. The late E. E. Barney, of Dayton, 



