The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-05

southern variety unsightly and useless in our re
gion, and the native variety an acceptable shade
tree, its wood almost practically lndestructlble
Its value for fence posts is recognized; they
stand fifty years without rot and are good for u
century railroad men admit that 1t outlastS any
other timber for cross ties eatalpa single roofs
last for fifty years; it makes light and tough
handles. The catalpa trees immersed and de-
stroyed by water in the great earthquake con
vulsion of the winter of 18ll-l2, when vast
tract Of country near New Madrid, Mo-, lying
parallel with the Mississippi river, and few
miles west of it in southeast Missouri and north
west Arkansas, was submerged with its forests
and changed into lake and swamp have not de-
cayed or fallen, but stand alone and unprotected
all the other trees fallen and rotted. Over this
area, eight to twenty miles wide and nearly 100
long, thousands of naked catalpas stand, their
trunks bleached and storm battered but the wood
still firm and susceptible of high polish,
and still used for posts Those killed on dry
land at the same time have fallen and lie sound
on the earth; those in the water not exposed to
wind still stand firmly, evidence both in root
and trunk of the remarkable endurance of
catalpa wood If sufficiently abundant, and
sawed into blocks of the ordinary size, eatadpa
wood might afford the best material known for
block pavement for our city streets.
Besides the greater size, compacter top
straighter trunk larger leaves, earlier, larger
and more snowy flowers; rough, dark, firmly ad-
herring bark of our native Species it has heavier
and broader seeds, decidedly winged and fully
teligent nurserymen not being posted as to the
difference between the two kinds of catalpa, and
not furnishing the proper kind to farmers-that
| is our own native variety, which
is indigenous in, southern Ohio; Indiana
and Illinois, and Kentucky and Missouri
In all this region there is not tree
of the tender. small variety native to Florida
and Georgia The little species, freely and easily
grown and so handsome in bloom and abundant
! in seed, has been pushed in the Middle States
nlautpPS
way to England in 1726, and has spread over
Europe and America, giving to the catalpa, of
which our systematic botanists recognize but
one species the reputation Of a tree that seldom
grows to timber-ike proportions. Mr.. A. S.
Fuller, in his book forest trees, classes the
catalpa, evidently only knowing the small vari-
ETY., among the small trees with the red bud
dogwood, hawthorn and the like.
Mr.. f.. +. Barney, of Dayton, o., well known
as one of the most extensive car builders in the
United States, and also practical and enthus-
astic hortculturist, has spared no pains to bring
the proper Western catalpa into notice
In his notes on the native trees of the lower
Wabash and White river valleys, published in
the December number of the Botanical Gazette
Robert Ridgway gives the measurements of q
oatalpa in Richland county Illinois, 100 feet
high, ffty-fve feet spread of top, girth at four
feet from ground, eighteen feet. May 81, 1883
it was in full bloom and clothed with its snowy
blossoms from the lowest branch to the extreme
summit"
General Harrison well knew the value of this
timber, which he used, planted and distributed
and in an, able address before an agricultural
fair, near Cincinnati, fifty five years ago, he
urged its extensive planting for timber The
catalpa he planted when Governor of the North
western Territory is still growing in front of
the Governors mansion, at Vincennes and the
catalpa posts of the old stockade, said to have
been made by him near the beginning of the
present century, are still quite sound, according
to Mr.. John C. Teas, who cites these instances
in the complete account of the catalpa read by
him before the Indiana Horticultural Society, at
the Dublin meeting, in 1879 This is the variety
to be planted IN our city streets where both
the less symmetrical and ragged species which
has travelled from Georgia and Florida by way
of the Southeastern States to our vicinity
W