LABURNUM. 
145 
Laburnum {Laburnum vulgar^. 
Although the Laburnums of our parks and gardens have all 
come from seed, and themselves produce an abundance of it, we 
do not meet with wayside “ escapes” as we might expect to do, 
having regard to the habit of the tree and the fact that it is 
comparatively indifferent respecting character of soil. Possibly 
a remark of Loudon’s may explain this. He says that rabbits 
are exceedingly fond of the bark, and it may be that they 
destroy any young trees that are unprotected by palings or 
netting. The tree produces such a glorification of many an 
ordinary suburban road, when its flowering time comes round, 
that one would like to note its effect as a common object of the 
hillside and the woodland, against a background furnished by 
our more sober native trees. 
The Laburnum is at home in the mountain forests of Central 
and Southern Europe, but there is no record of its introduction 
to Britain. We do know, however, that it has been with us 
for more than three centuries, for Gerarde, in his “ Herbal,” 
published 1597, refers to it as growing in his garden. It belongs 
to the great Pea and Bean family {Leguminosa), and is very 
closely related to the Common Broom, whose solitary flowers 
those of the Laburnum’s drooping racemes nearly resemble. 
Ordinarily it is only a low tree of about twenty feet in height, 
but in favourable situations it may attain to thirty feet or more. 
Some of the larger Laburnums, however, are of a distinct 
species (Z. alpinus). 
The pale round branches are clothed with leaves that are 
divided into three oval-lance-shaped leaflets, covered on the 
underside with silvery down. Both leaves and golden flowers 
appear simultaneously in May, but from the fact that the latter 
are gathered into numerous long pendulous racemes, their blaze 
of colour makes the leaves almost invisible. Tennyson’s de- 
scription of its flowering — “ Laburnum, dropping wells of fire” — • 
