TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



205 



extremely beautiful with rich wine-coloured foliage and a 

 graceful manner of growth. 



LOCUST TREE. 



YELLOW LOCUST. 



(Plate CVIII.) 

 Robinia Pseudacacia. 



FALSE ACACIA. 





Bark: reddish brown; rough and broken in ridges. Stipules: linear and 

 later developing into spines. Leaves: compound; alternate; with leaf- 

 stalks that are hollowed at the base and which cover the buds of the suc- 

 ceeding year ; odd-pinnate, with from eleven to twenty-five oval leaflets; rounded 

 at both ends and occasionally tipped with the end of the midrib; entire ; net- 

 ted-veined ; glabrous ; when unfolding covered with a silvery pubescence. 

 Flowers: white ; fragrant ; growing in loose, axillary racemes. Calyx : five- 

 toothed. Corolla: showy ; papilionaceous; the standard yellow at the base. 

 Legumes: linear; glabrous and containing from four to six brown seeds. 

 They remain on the trees over the winter. 



u The slender acacia would not shake 



One long milk-bloom on the tree. 

 The white lake-blossom fell into the lake 



As the pimpernel dozed on the lea ; 

 But the rose was awake all night for your sake, 



Knowing your promise to me ; 

 The lilies and roses were all awake, 



They sigh'd for the dawn and thee." Tennyson, 



It is not only when the bright sun of 

 mid-day is shining that trees are well 

 seen. On some tranquil night in early 

 summer, lit by a bright moon, the 

 locust tree is clearly defined as it rises 

 to its stately height and casts about its 

 fantastic shadows. Its clusters of 

 moving, sensitive blossoms also appear 

 to be thrown into prominence by the 

 dimness of other things. It is then 

 free from the labour of digesting and 

 assimilating the sap, which work it 

 does in the_ sunshine, jind calmly leans 



