436 
DECIDUOUS TREES. 
THE JUDAS, OR RED-BUD TREE. Cercis canadensis. 
Fig. 142 
A beautiful little tree, native of our 
forests in most parts of the country. 
When grown in open ground, its head 
.spreads broad and low in parasol form. 
It is covered the last of April, or early 
in May, before the leaves expand, with 
a profusion of very small pink blos¬ 
soms, that are showy by their abund¬ 
ance, and have given the tree the 
name of red-bud, by which, when 
growing wild, it is usually known. When grown 
with full exposure to the sun, in rich soil, the 
leaves are from five to seven inches in diameter, 
a perfect heart-shape, of a pure green color and 
glossy surface on the upper side, and grayish- 
green beneath, forming a mass of most cleanly 
and elegant foliage. The leaves are quite free 
from the attacks of insects. A cultivated tree 
in rich ground differs so much from the same 
sort growing in the woods, that it is scarcely recognizable as the 
same; changing from a straggling small-leaved, thin-foliaged, 
scrawny little tree, to one of the most luxuriant of low-spreading 
trees. The engraving, Fig. 142, is a portrait characteristic of the 
appearance of the tree when young; the specimen from which it 
was drawn having been planted but six years. As it increases in 
age the head becomes more oblate and distinctly parasol-like. The 
seeds of the tree are contained in bean-like pods from four to six 
inches long, which hang on the tree through the winter. Height, 
at maturity, from twelve to eighteen feet; breadth of head twenty 
to thirty feet. 
The English Judas-tree, Cercis siliquastrum , is quite similar 
to the above, the leaves being a little smaller and the flowers 
darker. The latter “ have an agreeable acid taste, and are mixed 
in salads, or fried in batter as fritters.” 
