38 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
LEGUMINOS£. 
One of the species produces hard, durable, and very valuable timber, and its bark, especially that 
of the roots, possesses tonic and emetic properties. 
ornamental plants and are largely cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. 
All the species of the United States are valued as 
Many insects feed upon 
Robinia,’ which is also affected, although not very seriously, by fungal diseases.’ 
The generic name made by Linneus, who discarded that of Tournefort, Pseudacacia,’ commemo- 
rates the botanical labors of Jean Robin,* herbalist of the king of France, and of his son, Vespasien 
Robin.® 
1 The most serious enemy of the Robinia is a borer (Cyllene ro- 
binie, Forster) which riddles the trunk and in many parts of the 
country has destroyed the value of Robinia Pseudacacia as a timber 
tree. The different species are injured by another borer (Cossus 
robinie, Harris) which, however, generally does more damage to 
the Oak. The boring larva of a moth (Sciapteron robinie, H. 
Edwards) is said to destroy Robinia Pseudacacia in some parts of 
Nevada and California (Bull. Brooklyn Entomolog. Soc. iii. 72). 
The foliage of Robinia is attacked by several insects, one of the 
most common and generally distributed being a butterfly (Eudamus 
tityrus, Fab.). The larve of a small moth (Depressaria robiniella, 
Packard) draw the leaves together and devour them (Bull. No. 7, 
U. S. Entomolog. Com. 98), and they are eaten by several species 
of leaf-miners, one of the most destructive of which is a small 
beetle (Odontota dorsalis, Thunb.). The larve of a small saw-fly 
(Nematus similaris, Norton) feed on the Jeaves ; and the genus is 
not exempt from the attacks of the Clisiocampas and other insects 
which are found on many of our forest trees. Small caterpillars 
are occasionally found in the pods, and the seed is often devoured 
by weevils. 
2 Robinia, in common with other arborescent Leguminose of 
North America, is affected by only a few diseases which can be 
traced directly to the action of fungi, and these are not especially 
dangerous. They are caused by species like Aglaospora profusa, 
De Not., Valsa ceratophora, Tul., and others found on many woody 
plants ; while a few like Valsaria Robinia, Cooke, Sphceronema 
Robinia, B. & C., and Sporocybe Robinice, Fr., are considered pecul- 
iar to the genus. These are all small black fungi whose characters 
are not to be recognized without the aid of the microscope. 
8 Inst. 649, t. 417. 
4 Jean Robin (1550-1629), a Parisian apothecary whom Tourne- 
fort called the most distinguished botanist of his time, established 
a garden near the Louvre which soon became famous. About 1586 
he was made arborist and herbalist of Henry III. and was appointed 
director of the gardens of the Louvre, a position which he contin- 
ued to fill under Henry IV. and Louis XIII. In 1597 he laid out 
and planted the garden of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, into 
which he introduced a number of valuable plants, including Hibiscus 
Syriacus and the Tuberose, which before his time was only known 
in France in the gardens of Provence and Languedoc, but which 
he made popular at the north. His published works include de- 
scriptions of new plants from Spain and Guinea published in his 
Jardin de Louis XIII. and catalogues of the plants which he culti- 
vated. In 1601 these numbered 1371 species, and in 1624 had 
increased to 1800 as described in his Enchiridion Isagogicum pub- 
lished in that year. 
5 Vespasien Robin (1579-1660) was early associated with his 
father, whom he succeeded as king’s arborist. The younger Robin 
made a number of journeys in the south of France and among the 
Alps and Pyrenees and into Spain and the Barbary States for the 
purpose of collecting plants for the Jardin du Roi, in which, in 
1635, he was made assistant professor of botany, becoming pro- 
fessor at the death of Gui de Labrosse. In 1653 he was replaced 
in this position by Dionys Joncquet, although until his death he 
retained the honorary title of lecturer upon medical plants. He 
was associated with his father in the publication of the Enchiridion. 
CONSPECTUS OF THE SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Flowers in slender loose racemes; legume smooth; branches naked . . . . . ws 
1. R. PsEupAcacta. 
Flowers in short crowded glandular-hispid racemes; legume glandular-hispid ; branches naked 2. R. N«eo-MEXICANA. 
Flowers in crowded oblong racemes; legume glandular-hispid ; branches and petioles clammy 3. R. viscosa. 
Flowers in short crowded racemes; legume glandular-hispid ; branches and petioles bristly- 
pubescent (shrubby). . . . ..... 
4. R. HISPIDA. 
