22 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
Professor Sargent has the following 
note on this tree : — " The nature of 
the buds of Cladrastis enables it to 
flourish many degrees north of the 
restricted area west of the southern 
Alleghany Mountains, which is its 
home. Instead of a single bud, there 
are under each leaf 4 buds, one above 
the other, and closely compressed by 
mutual pressure into a rather thick 
cone, each bud being covered with 
thin, lustrous scales. The lowest one 
is rudimentary, and probably it is the 
only one that develops into a branch. 
If this should be injured, then perhaps 
the next one takes its place. These 
4 buds of the American Cladrastis serve 
to separate it from the Asiatic plant 
Cladrastis (or Maackia) ainm^eiisis^ 
which has solitary buds, besides differ- 
ing in habit, in flower, and in minor 
botanical particulars from the American 
tree." 
DANSKE DANDRIDGE. 
Shepherdstown, West Virginia. 
For our English readers we add a few notes 
upon the value of the Virgilia, or Yellow- 
wood, upon this side of the Atlantic. 
The Kentucky Yellow-wood [Cladrastis | 
lutea). — Although in our climate this is not 
of first value for its flowers (only blooming I 
well at uncertain intervals) it is one of the j 
most distinct of hardy trees in its beauty of j 
form and autumn colour. It should have 
shelter, a light warm soil, and a sunny place, 
and if with a background of dark Pines, Yew, 
or Copper Beech, the vivid orange and yellow 
of its leaves in autumn is seen in rich contrast. 
It is one of the first trees to colour, beginning 
to change in some years by the end of August 
and growing brighter till the white frosts strip 
the trees with a startling suddenness — a sharp 
night often bringing down every leaf before 
noon of the next day. This renders it a good 
tree for trim lawns, where others with a long 
season of disorder create much work and spoil 
the grass. Its graceful outline is also best 
seen when planted in the open, neat even in 
winter with its smooth ashen-grey bark, from 
which the sap will flow as freely as from any 
Sugar Maple and with the same sweet taste. 
The young shoots hang gracefully in their 
first season but draw erect as the wood stiffens, 
while the drooping leaves of pretty pale green 
and the long white flower clusters accentuate 
the gently pendent habit. The leaves appear 
early, and are often 1 2 to 18 inches long on 
young and vigorous trees, but only half this 
when older ; the same difference exists in the 
flower-clusters, which measure i o to 20 inches 
in America but are rarely more, and often 
considerably less, than a foot long in this 
country. The flowers are Hke those of the 
Locust Tree, but larger, and nearly pure 
white, with a faint yellow blotch in the centre, 
and opening in July and August instead of 
from the end of May, as on the other side of 
the Atlantic. The long thin seed-pods are not 
often ripened with us, but in default of seed 
the tree may be increased from cuttings of 
the root. When they can be had, seedlings 
grow as freely as any Locust Tree, after passing 
the early stages. They come so true that no 
variation has ever been noted, save a variegated 
variety, and one fine-leaved form, known as 
gracilis. Owing to its value for fuel, the tree 
is fast becoming so rare in its own country as 
to be in danger of extermination. The wood 
is hard, fine-grained, and difficult to split ; 
from its pale yellow colour it is known as 
American Gopher-wood. This beautiful tree 
flowers best in warm dry soils, but a fine sum- 
mer is yet more potent, as seen in the years 
1887, 1900, and 1 90 1, when it flowered with 
unusual freedom in many parts of the country. 
The Siberian Yellow-wood {Cladrastis 
amurensis). — If less graceful in habit and 
outline, this is yet well worth a place in 
gardens, and while less showy it is freer and 
more certain in flower. With us it is a tree 
of moderate size, with a spreading leafy head, 
the branches held flat or slightly drooping, 
and the olive-green bark peeling off in flakes 
when old, as in the common Birch. When 
mature, the leaves are of darker green, tougher, 
and much smaller than in Cladrastis lutea ^with 
erect spikes of small white flowers, densely 
massed, and opening in July and August. 
They last a long while and come so freely 
