4,^4= 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
The Yellow-Wood, or Virgilia. 
About seven years ago, in ordering some 
trees for a new place, we included the one 
known to nurserymen as Virgilia. Each year 
since it was planted it has increased in beauty; 
in grace of form, lightness of foliage, and at¬ 
tractiveness of color, it has been a continuous 
source of satisfaction. This year it bloomed ! 
and the long delicate racemes of pure white 
. flowers, gave an added grace to that which be- 
1 fore seemed perfect. Here is an American 
! tree with every claim that can be presented by 
Fig. 1.— MICHIGAN PEACH basket.— (See page 423.) 
any tree, which is almost entirely ignored by 
i planters, who will go on planting maples, elms, 
, mountain ashes, and the like—all good enough 
c trees—until we get tired of the sameness. The 
trouble with the majority of tree planters is 
that they seem to know but few trees, and keep 
on planting those over and over again. How 
rare it is to see oaks, beeches, and ashes, used 
for ornament, not to mention the Liquidambar, 
Tulip-tree, and other beautiful natives. Almost 
every place, so far as trees go, is a duplicate 
of the next, while with such a number of 
fine trees to choose from, this uniformity 
can be easily avoided. The Yellow-wood 
was referred by Michaux to an exotic genus 
Virgilia , so named in honor of the poet Vir¬ 
gil, and this name is still retained in the cata¬ 
logues ; Rafinesque, finding it to be a distinct 
genus, called it Cladrastis, (a name, the mean¬ 
ing of which is obscure), and its proper botani¬ 
cal name is G. tinctoria. The tree rarely grows 
over 30 or 40 feet high, and a foot in diameter; 
the bark is smooth, not becoming furrowed 
even on old trees. The leaves have 7 to 11 leaf¬ 
lets, and the base of the petiole covers the bud of 
next year. The flowers are in loose pendant 
clusters, 10 to 20 inches long; they are of a pure 
white, except a small yellowish spot in the 
center, and have a slight fragrance ; the general 
appearance of the flowers is a little like those 
of the locust, but they are of a purer white and 
in a more ample cluster. The fruit is a pod 
three or four inches long, containing four to 
six oblong seeds. The heart-wood of the tree 
is yellow, and gives up its color readily to wa¬ 
ter, though it is not easy to fix as a dye. The 
tree seems to be much restricted in its range, 
it being found only in East Kentucky and 
southwards along the western base of the Al- 
leghanies. The Yellow-wood was formerly 
quite rare, but is now kept in the leading nurse* 
ries. It is easily raised from seed, which, if 
kept until spring should be preserved in sand, 
as, if they are allowed to become completely 
dry, they will remain in the ground a whole 
year without germinating. So little is this 
beautiful tree known and appreciated that a 
nurseryman told us he had to burn up a fine 
lot, which were getting too large for sale. 
Roe’s Seedling Gooseberry. 
Sometime last summer the Rev. E. P. Roe, 
of Cornwall on the Hudson, author of “ Play 
Fig. 2.— bottom OF basket.— (See page 423.) 
and Profit in my Garden,” brought us a speci¬ 
men of a gooseberry, in which bush and fruit 
appeared to be perfectly healthy, and the fruit 
was much larger than any of our native sorts. 
