466 
make a fine appearance, especially when the branches are covered pretty thick with them: they 
come out in the spring with the leaves, and are in full beauty before the leaves have attained half 
their size. The flower is papilionaceous, and having an agreeable poignancy, is frequently eaten in 
salads. When the flowers fall off, the germ becomes a long flat pod, containing one row of roundish 
seeds, a little compressed; but these do not often succeed the flowers in this country upon standard 
trees, for the birds pick off the flowers when fully open; but where they have been planted against 
good aspected walls, I have seen great plenty of the pods, which, in warm seasons, hav«e ripened 
very well. 
These trees are usually planted with other flowering trees and shrubs for ornaments to pleasure 
gardens, and for their singular beauty, deserve a place as well as most other sorts, for when they 
are arrived to a good size, they are productive of flowers, so as that the branches are often closely 
covered with them; and the singular shape of their leaves makes a pretty variety in the summer, 
and they are seldom damaged by insects. This tree flowers in May, when planted in the full air, 
but against warm walls it is a fortnight or three weeks earlier. 
The wood of this tree is very beau tifully veined with black and green, and taking a fine polish, 
may be converted to many uses. 
There are two varieties of this tree, one with a white, and the other hath a flesh-coloured flower, 
but these have not half the beauty of the first. Tournefort also mentions one with broader pods 
and pointed leaves, which I believe is only a variety of this. 
Native of the Levant, Spain, Sou th of Fi ance, Italy near Rome, and on the Apennines, Japan, &c. 
Cultivated 1596, by Gerard.* 
Species 2. Canada Judas Tree . (Cercis Canadensis.) 
This tree grows naturally in most parts of North America, where it is called Red Bud, I suppose 
from the red flower-buds appearing in the spring before the leaves come out; this grows to a 
middling stature in the places where it is a native, but in England rarely rises with a stem more 
than twelve feet high, but branches out near the root. The branches of this are weaker than those 
of the first sort; the leaves are downy, and terminate in points; whereas those of the first are smooth, 
and round at the end, where they are indented. The flowers of this are also smaller, and do not 
make so fine appearance as those of the first; but the trees are equally hardy, and will thrive in the 
open air very well. 
The flowers of this sort are frequently put into salads by the inhabitants of America: and the 
French in Canada pickle the flowers, but these have little flavour. The wood of this tree is of the 
same colour and texture as that of the first. 
The young branches dye wool of a very fine Nankin colour. Cultivated in 1730/f' 
CULTURE. 
These trees may be propagated by sowing their seeds upon a bed of light earth, towards the 
latter end of March, or the beginning of April (and if you put a little hot dung under the bed, it 
will greatly facilitate the growth of the seeds); when the seeds are sown, sift the earth over them 
about half an inch thick; and, if the season prove wet, it will be proper to cover the bed with mats, 
to preserve it from great rains, which will sometimes burst the seeds, and cause them to rot; the 
* Iiort. Kew. 
j- Ibid. 
