Tim LABURNUM.
A gardener, whose most lovely garden proclaims his peculiar knowledge of shrubs, is good enough to give me a complete explanation of the mystery of the laburnum, referred to last week, though why a third colour and form should be found on one tree is still a little mysterious. He says, "I think that you must have been talking about Laburnum Adami in the Spectator this week. I have got three here about '20 years old. I imagine that Adam took cuttings from near the graft of the Purple Broom and Laburnum. The only other thing which I know which does the same sort of thing is Crataego Mespilus, but that has the medlar, thorn and a hybrid between the two on different parts of the tree. In two of my L. Adami the purple broom has nearly disappeared and in the other the yellow tassels are getting scarce so I expect that in time ' they will all decide what they are and act accordingly The brownish pink tassels are not beautiful, but the tree is the greatest curiosity in botany." There is, I believe, an old tree of this sort in the Fellows' Garden at King's College.
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