We always protested against the specific use of this name to the Catalpa speciosa as distinguished from C. bignonioides, because the latter is quite as hardy as most North American forest trees are. C. speciosa might possibly be hardier, but that did not warrant the imputation that C. bignonioides, or the eastern Catalpa, was not hardy in any fair acceptation of the term. But it turns out that C. speciosa is no more hardy than the older species. "The Bulletin No. 7 of the Agricultural College of Michigan" says :

"The two Catalpa?, C. speciosa and C. bignonioides, are about equally hardy. Both suffer considerably, and appear to be unreliable. As Catalpa speciosa has not been recognized as distinct from the older species until quite recently, the leading distinction between the two may be given. C. speciosa - tree tall, a straight grower; leaves softly downy, inodorous; flowers two inches across, nearly white, the lower lobe notched; pods stout and long (one and a half inches in circumference). C. bignonioides - tree lower, diffuse in growth; leaves smooth, or nearly so, giving a disagreeable odor when touched; flowers smaller, dingy, the lower lip entire; pods more slender. Teas' Japan Hybrid Catalpa is not hardy".

And of its climate it says:

"The climate of Lansing appears to be uncommonly severe for this latitude (430 nearly) in Michigan. Last winter the mercury sank 320, and many times in quick succession it was below minus twenty. That, however, was an unusually rigorous winter. Moreover, the college campus lies in an open and exposed country, and the winter winds are very destructive. It is only the hardiest plants which can endure long".