REDBUD. JUDAS-TREE.
Cercis occidentalis, Torr. Pea Family.
Small trees or shrubs. Leaves.—Alternate; slender-petioled; round-cordate; palmately veined; smooth; about two inches in diameter. Flowers.—Rose-color; papilionaceous; clustered in the axils. Petals.—Four lines long; the standard smaller and inclosed by the wings. Stamens.—Ten; all distinct. Ovary.—One-celled. Pods.—Two or three inches long; thin. Hab.—Mt. Shasta to San Diego.
By April, or earlier, our interior hills and valleys begin to show the rosy blossoms of the Judas-tree. The leafless branches are wreathed with the abundant flowers, which gives the shrub the appearance of a garden fruit-tree. When seen later, in its full summer foliage, it is almost equally attractive. Its shapely leaves are then diversified by the clusters of long purple pods, which hang gracefully among them.
[WILD HOLLYHOCK—Sidalcea malvæflora.]
![[WILD HOLLYHOCK—Sidalcea malvæflora.]](#3624944100741987669_f068.png.id-1580272875016048217.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
The Indians find the slender twigs of this shrub very useful in their basket-making. By means of the thumb-nail or flints, they split them into threads, which they use as woof.
A closely allied species of Cercis, growing in Palestine, had, according to tradition, white flowers, until the arch-traitor Judas hanged himself from its limbs, when it blushed pink for very shame.
In medieval Europe the Judas-tree was believed to be a favorite rendezvous for witches, and it was considered dangerous to approach one at nightfall.