DECIDUOUS TREES. 
397 
street, which passes within twenty feet of its trunk, has been cut 
down four feet below the level of the ground about the tree, the 
latter being supported by a wall on the street line. The extension 
of this tree is over the road, which is also on the south side. 
In the old Bartram garden, south of Philadelphia (now the 
residence of A. M. Eastwick, Esq.), is a beautiful specimen of the 
virgilia. It is thirty feet high, thirty-five feet in diameter of head, 
with a trunk fifteen inches thick. This tree grows principally on 
the west side; and in September, when the author saw it, was a 
superb mass of foliage. In size the virgilia is inferior to the horse- 
chestnut, and when young not so compact, but with age it bears 
more resemblance to that tree than to any other species, though 
they are readily distinguished from each other by the sharper 
shadow-lines of the virgilia, and the finer quality and different 
character of the leaves. 
THE KENTUCKY COFFEE-TREE. Gymnocladus canadensis. 
This curious tree is a sort of combination of the peculiarities of 
many trees. In its stubby cane-like young branches, and doubly- 
compound leaves, it resembles the large shrub or small tree called 
Hercules club; in the massing and breaks of its foliage it re¬ 
sembles a fine black or yellow locust, though its leaves are not so 
delicate; while in outline it is like the black walnut, but with a 
heavier and more rounded or oval contour. Its young branches are 
so cane-like, and without any indication of buds, that the tree in 
winter has the appearance of being dead. The bark of the trunk 
is also extremely rough, and curiously broken transversely. The 
leaves on young trees are three feet long, and twenty inches wide, 
but much smaller on mature trees. Each main leaf stalk beais 
from four to seven pairs of compound leaves, each of which is com¬ 
posed of from six to eight pairs of leaflets, so that each main 
petiole, or leaf-stem, may bear from forty-eight to one hundred and 
seventy-four leaflets! The leaflets are of a bluish green, and the 
general tone of the tree is not among the most lively greens. The 
blossoms are borne in short spikes from May to July. The leaves 
