220 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
expand late in the spring, and wither hastily when frost 
approaches ; but the soft tint of their luxuriant vegetation 
is very grateful to the eye, and it appears to be uninjured 
by the hottest rays of summer. North of this place the 
Catalpa is rather too tender for exposed situations. 
We have seen the Catalpa employed to great advantage in 
fixing and holding up the loose soil of river banks, where, 
if planted, it will soon insinuate its strong roots, and retain 
the soil firmly. In Ohio, experiments have been made with 
the timber for the posts used in fencing ; and it is stated on 
good authority that it is but little inferior, when well sea- 
soned, to that of the locust in durability. 
Michaux mentions that he has been assured that the 
honey collected from the flowers is poisonous ; but this we 
are inclined to doubt ; or at least we have witnessed no ill 
effects from planting it in abundance in the middle states, 
in those neighbourhoods where bees are kept in considerable 
numbers. 
The Catalpa is very easily propagated from seeds sown in 
any light soil ; and the growth of the young plants is ex- 
tremely rapid. C. syringafolia is the only species. 
The Persimon Tree. Diospyros. 
Nat. Ord. Ebenacese. Lin. Syst. Polygamia, Dicecia. 
\ 
The Highlands of the Hudson, and about the same lati- 
tude on the Connecticut, may be considered the northern 
limits of this small tree. It generally forms a spreading, 
loose head, of some twenty or thirty feet high, in good soils in 
