214 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
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 seasoned, 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 neighborhoods 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 
extremely rapid. C. syringafolia is the only species.^ 
The Persimon Tree. Diospyros. 
Nat. Ord. Ebenaceae. Lin. Syst. Polygamia, Dicecia. 
The Highlands of the Hudson, and about the same 
latitude 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 the middle states ; but we have seen a 
* This was quite true when the above chapter was written. Since when, we 
have. C. bungei, C. Jccemferi, and C. Jiimmalayensis — the first two being 
dwarfs. 
