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Catalpas

As to durability, tests give very satisfactory results. A forest was inundated in Missouri by the earthquake of 1811. Sixty-seven years after, the catalpas stood perfectly sound, while all other trees had utterly disappeared. Catalpa ties, selected at random, are sound after a dozen years of use. Fence posts known to have been set fifty years look as if they were good for the rest of the century.

The Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis, DC.), a little tree on the boundary between Texas and Mexico, is a member of the bignonia family. It has white flowers and pods, somewhat like those of the catalpas, but its leaves are often a foot long, and narrow as a blade of grass. It is sometimes planted in Southern gardens. The only species in the genus, it will not be confused with other trees.

The Black Calabash Tree (Crescentia cucurbitina, Linn.) is the only other native tree that belongs in the family with the catalpas. The shores of Bay Biscayne, in southeastern Florida, form the outpost of its extensive West Indian and Central American range. Its flower is a solitary, purplish-yellow tube with a flaring border. The leaf is obovate, leathery, dark green, with perfectly plain margin. The fruit is a berry, 3 or 4 inches long, and shaped like a peach or plum. Its hard, shiny shell encloses many flattish seeds.

The gourd-like fruit of the West Indian calabash tree (C. Cujete, Linn.) is made into drinking-cups and a great variety of culinary utensils. It is much larger than that of the preceding species.

The Paulownia (Paulownia imperialis, Sieb. & Zucc.) is a member of the spurge family, not so far away from the catalpa, botanically speaking. Indeed, an untrained eye detects the similarity in foliage, flowers and general habit of the two trees. In lustiness of growth each excels in many regions where tropical profusion of leafage and bloom is exceptional.

The paulownia blossoms before the leaves; its clustered violet flowers hung out on the ends of twigs look like foxgloves. Showy as these are, they need the leaf background--the lack of it scores against them among critical admirers of ornamental trees. The clustered seed balls, too, are unsightly in winter, requiring to be cut off.

A very satisfying screen of verdure is renewed every season by cutting back to one or two stalks seedlings of paulownia. The heart-shaped leaves are often a foot across. The hardiness of the tree commends it. Even as far north as Montreal it comes up from roots every year, forming long shoots which bear leaves astonishingly large compared with trees indigenous to the region.

In spite of the drawbacks named, this tree enjoys a growing popularity in the eastern half of the country. Its flowers are deliciously fragrant, and no tree blossom has more delicate colour. Blue is unusual among tree blossoms, and these trees, like great blue-flowered catalpas, are striking objects in parks and along avenues. Native of Japan and China, the paulownia feels enough at home already in America to run wild in some places. A splendid evergreen species has been found in the Himalayas.