252 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
have endeared him to all lovers of nature, and a country 
life. 
The Yirgilia is certainly one of the most beautiful of 
all that class of trees bearing papilionaceous, or pea-shaped 
flowers, and pinnate leaves, of which the common locust may 
serve as a familiar example. It grows to a fine, rather broad 
head, about 30 or 40 feet high, with dense and luxuriant 
foliage — much more massy, and finely tufted, than that of mos t 
other pinnated leaved trees. Each leaf is composed of seven 
or eight leaflets, three or four inches long, and half that 
breadth, the whole leaf being more than a foot in length. 
These expand rather late in the spring, and are, about the 
middle of May, followed by numerous terminal racemes, or 
clusters of the most delicate and charming pea-shaped blossoms, 
of a pure white. These clusters are six or eight inches in 
length, and quite broad, the flowers daintily formed, and 
arranged in a much more graceful, loose, and easy manner, 
than those of the locust. They have a very agreeable, slight 
perfume, especially in the evening, and the whole effect of 
the tree, when standing singly on a lawn and filled with 
blossoms, is highly elegant. 
When the blossoms disappear, they are followed by the 
pods, about the fourth of an inch wide, and three or four 
inches long, containing a few seeds. These ripen in July 
or August. 
This tree is frequently called the Yellow-wood , in its 
native haunts — its heart wood abounding in a fine yellow 
colouring matter, which, however, is said to be rather 
difficult to fix, or render permanent. The bark is beauti- 
fully smooth, and of a greenish gray colour. In autumn, the 
leaves, when they die off, take a lively yellow tint. 
This tree grows pretty rapidly, and is very agreeable in its 
