Layering and inarching from specimens which are desired, are two 
ways to be sure of getting a tree of satisfactory color. | The form of 
the tree is also variable, being generally larger and more spreading 
than is the yellow shower. Like all the Cassias, it requires heavy 
pruning each year to keep it in good shape.” This is quoted at some 
length because in the course of the next three or four years, these 
rainbow shower trees in a multitude of colors will probably be available 
to growers in Florida. For further information on these cross-breeds, 
see Degener’s. “Flora Hawaiiensis.” 
CASSIA HYBRIDA. According to David Sturrock, this tree has 
“heavy masses of light pink flowers, carried along the semi-deciduous 
branches, similar to those of C. nodosa of which this tree is possibly 
a seedling. Hardy, spready growing tree for exposed locations, with 
heavy medium-green foliage.” My seed came from the Harvard 
Botanical Garden in Cuba of which Sturrock is superintendent. 
CASSIA NODOSA. Famed pink-and-white shower. One of the 
best of the pink varieties. 
CONOSTEGIA XALAPENSIS. (Melastomaceae). This is com- 
mon through the West Indies and Central America and varies in size 
from a mere shrub’ to a spreading tree 25-35 feet high. Standley’s 
“Flora of Panama Canal Zone” says it is “conspicuous because of its 
bi-colored leaves and showy pink flowers” which are in panicles, mostly 
small but many-flowered and dense. The sweet purplish fruits are 
of good flavor and are much eaten and often seen in'the markets. “In 
flavor and appearance they suggest blueberries.” In Costa Rica the 
trees are plentiful on the Atlantic watershed in well-drained soil. There 
is another species in Costa Rica, C. Pittieri which Standley says is a 
handsome tree “because of its abundance of rather showy (white, 
fragrant) flowers.” This species is not known in the United States, 
TABEBUIA PENTAPHYLLA (Bignoniaceae). The first time I 
saw this tree in bloom at Chapman Field, I felt it was the loveliest 
flowering tree for Florida I had ever seen and I still feel that way. 
Because it is evergreen or nearly so, under our conditions, because it is 
“clean,” because its great clusters of pink flowers are gorgeous, I think 
it should be widely planted. It seldom grows to more than 40 feet. ° 
I am not alone in my enthusiasm for this tree, because Standley’s 
“Flora of Honduras” says: “This is one of the most beautiful trees of 
Central America. . .. When in blossom the trees vie in their variety 
of shades with the famous Japanese cherries, and they exhibit about 
the same amount of variation in color through the same shades of pink 
and purple. The trees flower usually about the end of the dry season, 
and the flowers are produced in such abundance that the trees resemble 
great bouquets.” In Standley’s “Flora of Costa Rica” he says of this 
tree: “In beauty it has few rivals. The trees often form pure stands 
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