TREES OF THE CAMBRIDGE BOTANIC GARDEN. 



5 



nearest ally, perhaps, is A. monspessulanum, with entire margins, of 

 which also there is a good specimen in the Garden. The fruit is small, 

 glabrous, with parallel wings. 



9. Cercis Siliquastrum Willd. (Bot. Mag., t. 1138). The Judas 

 Tree. 



The tree in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, so far as I have been 

 able to discover, is the finest in this country. It measured 27 ft. 6 in. 

 in height by 51 ft. in width in 1910, and is now no higher, but much 

 greater in width owing to the falling apart of some of the heavier 

 branches. In May it constitutes one of the sights to be seen in this 

 garden. It is a native of the south of Europe and was cultivated by 

 Gerard in 1596. The wood is hard, beautifully veined, and takes a 

 high polish. The flowers are said, from their sweetish acid taste, to 

 form an agreeable addition to salads. They are pink, or rosy pink, 

 in colour^ but there is a white variety which is exceedingly beautiful . 

 At Cambridge also we have the Canadian species, C. canadensis, 

 known as " Redbud," which apparently does not flower at all freely. 



10. Pterocarya caucasica C. A. Meyer (Elwes and Henry, ii. 438). 

 The mass of this tree to which I draw your attention is one of the 



most striking ornaments out of doors in the Cambridge Botanic Garden. 

 Originally there were two trees ; one of them blew down about 29 

 years ago, and from the roots there sprang up a thicket of growth which 

 consists now of quite respectable trees equalling the original remaining 

 one in height. Growth has been strong and rapid, and this has been 

 due, no doubt, to a small stream, almost, now, in the middle of the thicket. 

 The roots invade this stream and would soon stop it up if they were not 

 cut out from time to time. It fruits freely, and in July the catkins of 

 fruit have a quite ornamental effect. The old tree in 1903 was 58 ft. 

 high, in 1910 it was 61 ft. high. The finest tree known is at Melbury, 

 Dorsetshire, the seat of the Earl of Ilchester. When measured it 

 was 90 ft. high, lift, in girth, with bole 15ft. long. There is also a 

 fine tree at Claremont Park, near Esher. It is a native of Persia and 

 the Caucasus. 



11. Sophora japonica Linn. (Fig. 6.) 



The finest tree, with one exception, of which dimensions are recorded, 

 is standing on the site of the old Botanic Garden, now largely covered 

 by Museum Buildings. In 1904 the tree measured 73 ft. high and 

 the bole 11 ft. in girth. A tree which perhaps exceeds this in size is 

 mentioned in a footnote by Elwes and Henry as growing at Cobham 

 Park in Kent. At Kew in 1903 a tree near the Pagoda measured 68 ft. 

 in height and the bole 8 ft. 3 in. in circumference. Some years ago 

 there was a fine tree on a slight elevation near the present Tropical 

 Orchid House, and there was formerly a tree on the front wall of 

 Descanso House by the Richmond Road, near the Green. It is 

 wild in the Province of Chihli in China, but it is not native of Japan. 

 The buds, it is stated, are used for dyeing yellow, and all parts of the 



