LEGUMINOS2. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
41 
The bark of the root is tonic, or in large doses purgative and emetic,’ and is used in homeopathic 
remedies.” 
Kobina Pseudacacia was introduced into Europe early in the seventeenth century,’ and was 
planted in the Jardin du Roi in Paris by Vespasien Robin in 1636.4 The first description of the tree 
was published by John Parkinson in 1640 in the Theatrum Botanicum. 
No other North American tree has been so generally planted for timber and ornament in the 
United States® and in Europe ;7 and no inhabitant of the American forest has been the subject of so 
voluminous a literature.® 
Numerous varieties have appeared in nurseries marked by peculiarities of 
foliage, of habit, and of the color of the flowers, and are esteemed wherever the Robinia can be 
successfully grown.® 
1 Griffith, Med. Bot. 238, £.123.—U. S. Dispens. ed. 14, 1746. — 
Nat. Dispens. ed. 2, 1231. — Lawrence Johnson, Man. Med. Bot. 
N. Am. 132. 
2 Millspaugh, Am. Med. Pl. in Homeopathic Remedies, i. 50, t. 50. 
8 It is impossible to establish the exact date of the introduction 
of the Locust-tree into Europe. Some authors, including Linneus, 
the editors of the last edition of A/iller’s Dictionary, and those of 
the Nouveau Duhamel, fix it as 1601 when Jean Robin is said to 
have obtained seeds from America: others, including Adanson and 
Deleuze, state that it was not until 1636 that the Locust reached 
Paris, and that the honor of its introduction belongs to Vespasien 
and not to Jean Robin. It is not improbable that the Locust may 
have been cultivated in England as early or earlier than in France. 
According to Parkinson, whose work was published only five years 
after Vespasien Robin planted his tree in Paris, the Locust had been 
raised near London by Tradescant “to an exceeding great height.” 
4 The tree planted by Vespasien Robin in Paris in 1636 is still 
living in the gardens of the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle. (See 
Revue Horticole, 1873, 152, f. 16. — Garden and Forest, iii. 305, f.) 
5 Arbor siliquosa Virginiensis spinosa, Locus nostratibus dicta, 1550. 
Acacia Virginiana siliquis glabris, Ray, Hist. Pl. ii. 1719. 
Acacie affinis Virginiana spinosa, siliqua membranacea plana, flo- 
ribus albis papilionaceis. Anagyridis modo in Uvam propendentibus, 
Plukenet, Phyt. t. 73, f.4; Alm. Bot. 6. 
Pseudo-Acacia siliquis glabris, Boerhaave, Hort. Lugd. Bat. 
ii. 39. 
Robinia aculeis geminatis, Linneus, Hort. Cliff. 354. — Royen, F7. 
Leyd. Prodr. 372. — Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 82. 
Robinia pedunculis racemosis, foliis pinnatis, Linneus, Hort. Ups. 
212. — Clayton, Fl. Virgin. ed. 2, 105. 
6 The value of Robinia Pseudacacia is practically destroyed in 
nearly all parts of the United States beyond the mountain forests 
which are its home, by the borers which riddle the trunk and 
branches. Were it not for these insects it would be one of the 
most valuable timber-trees that could be planted in the northern 
and middle states. The character of the timber which it produces, 
the rapidity of its growth, its power to adapt itself to different 
soils and to reproduce itself rapidly by seeds which germinate 
readily, and by stump and root shoots, would make it a most valu- 
able subject for forest and coppice-planting if it could be protected 
from insects. Young trees grow quickly and vigorously for a 
number of years, but soon become stunted and diseased, and rarely 
live long enough to attain any commercial value. 
7 No other American tree is so common in central and northern 
Europe, where Robinia Pseudacacia, although it never attains the 
size to which it grows in its native forests, now sometimes springs 
up spontaneously and appears to be naturalized. It is planted in 
great numbers for the decoration of parks and gardens, to protect 
railroad embankments, and to fix shifting sands, in coppice for the 
production of stakes and poles, and for the fodder furnished by 
the young growing shoots and leaves. (See a letter on the Acacia 
as a fodder plant in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1801, 1098.) 
8 Evelyn, Silva, 64, ed. Hunter, ii. 63.— Miller, Dict. No. 1. — 
Duhamel, Traité des Arbres, ii. 187, t. 42. — Aiton, Hort. New. iii. 
53. — Bechstein, Forsibot. i. 265. — Naudin, Manuel de l’Acclimateur, 
467. 
Towards the end of the last century public attention in Europe 
was attracted to the value of the Robinia by a number of papers 
printed in the Transactions of scientific and horticultural societies; 
and in 1803 Monsieur N. Francois de Neufchateau, a senator and 
member of the Institute, published in Paris, under the title of 
Lettre sur le Robinia connu sur le nom impropre de faux Acacia, an 
octavo volume of three hundred and fourteen pages containing the 
essence of all that had been published about the tree in France, 
with much interesting information relating to its cultivation and 
its uses. A translation of a large part of this was published in 
1842 in an English book on the Locust by W. Withers entitled, 
The Acacia-tree : its Growth, Cultivation, and Uses. 
William Cobbett, the publicist, by his example and writings, did 
more than any one else to make known the valne and extend the 
cultivation of the Locust-tree in the United States and in Europe. 
During an enforced residence in the United States, between the 
years 1817 and 1819, Cobbett devoted himself to farming on Long 
Island, and established a small nursery for the propagation of fruit 
and timber trees. Here he came to the conclusion “ that nothing 
in the timber line could be so great a benefit as the general culti- 
vation of the Locust.” On his return to England he carried with 
him a package of the seeds and began the systematic raising and 
selling of Locust-trees, of which he sold more than a million. (See 
Cobbett, Woodlands, No. 323.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 609.) 
9 At least thirty varieties of Robinia Pseudacacia are recognized 
in gardens. The most distinct are, — 
Var. inermis, De Candolle, Cat. Hort. Monsp. 136; Prodr. ii. 
261.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 609. (R. spectabilis, Du Mont de 
Courset, Bot. Cult. vi. 140. R. Utterharti, Hort. — Verlot, Rev. 
Hort. 1873, 155. 
This only differs from the common Locust in the absence of 
stipular spines. It is this form which is usually planted in Europe 
for fodder. Grafted plants are used for this purpose, as the seed- 
lings are often furnished with spines, which detract from the value 
of the fodder. Grown in good soil the Robinia furnishes two crops 
of shoots in the season. 
Var. umbraculifera, De Candolle, Cat. Hort. Monsp. 137 ; Prodr. 
l. c. — Loudon, J. c. 610. — Koch, Dendr. i. 57.— Verlot, l.c. (R. 
inermis, Du Mont de Courset, J. c.) 
The Parasol Acacia, as this variety is usually called, is character- 
