Though perfectly hardy, in other respects it
is unfortunate that the season at which the Paulownia flowers is so
early that, unless the conditions are unusually favourable, the flower
buds get destroyed by the frost. The tree grows to fully 40 feet high in
this country, and is a grandly decorative object in its foliage alone,
and for which, should the flowers never be produced, it is well worthy
of cultivation. They are ovate-cordate, thickly covered with a grayish
woolly tomentum, and often measure, but particularly in young and
healthy trees, as much as 10 inches in length. The Foxglove-like flowers
are purplish-violet and spotted, and borne in terminal panicles. They
are sweetly-scented. When favourably situated, and in cool, sandy loam
or peaty earth, the growth of the tree is very rapid, and when a tree
has been cut over, the shoots sent out often exceed 6 feet in length in
one season, and nearly 2 inches in diameter. There are many fine old
trees throughout the country, and which testify to the general hardihood
of the Paulownia.
PERIPLOCA.
PERIPLOCA GRAECA.--Poison Vine. South Eastern Europe, and Orient, 1597.
A tall, climbing shrub, with small, ovate-lanceolate leaves, and
clusters of curious purplish-brown, green-tipped flowers produced in
summer. The long, incurved appendages, in the shape of a crown, and
placed so as to protect the style and anthers, render the flowers of
peculiar interest.
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