After such a delightful summary of their charms it seems cruel to try and dispel one of their most treasured traditions--namely, that Bacon planted the catalpa. It is a splendid and venerable tree, and there is no wish to pull it from its proud position of the first catalpa planted, and the finest in existence in this country; but it is hard to believe that Bacon planted it, in the light of the history of the plant. There is no mention of a catalpa in any of the earlier writers--Gerard did not know it, and it is not in the later edition of his work by Thomas Johnson, in 1633, or in Parkinson’s “Paradisus,” in 1629, or in Evelyn’s “Sylva,” in 1664, all published after Bacon’s death. The tree was first described by Catesby in his “Natural History of Carolina,” a splendid folio which appeared in 1731. There it is classed as _Bignonia urucu foliis_, or _Catalpa_, as it was not until later that Jussieu separated the genus _Catalpa_. He says the tree was not known to the inhabitants of Carolina till the seeds “were brought there from the remoter parts of the country,” “and though the inhabitants are little curious in gardening, the uncommon beauty of this tree induced them to propagate it, and it is become an ornament to many of their gardens, and probably will be the same to ours in England, it being as hardy as most of our American plants: many of them, now at Mr. Bacon’s, at Hoxton, having stood out several winters without any protection, except the first year.” Hoxton was then a place famous for its nursery gardens. In 1767, in Catesby’s volume on the trees of North America, he gives the same story, and adds, “in August 1748” it produced, “at Mr. Gray’s, such numbers of blossoms, that the leaves were almost hid thereby.” This Mr. Gray owned the nurseries in Brompton, famous under the management of London and Wise.