XXV. I.EGU.AIINA CE^, : ROBIN/.-f 



t>35 



382. RobSnia Pseiid-^cacia. 



Scotch pine. According to Barlow, the strength of acacia timber, as compared 

 with fine EngHsh oak, is as 1867 to 1672 ; the strength of ash being as 2026 ; 

 beech, 1556; elm, 1013; Riga fir, 1108 ; Norway spar (spruce nr), 14.74 ; 

 and teak, 2462. The tree has one property almost p>eculiar to it, that of forming 

 heart-wood at a very early age, viz. in its third year ; whereas the sap-wood of the 

 oak, the chestnut, the beech, the elm, and most other trees, does not begin to 

 change into heart, or perfect, wood, till after 10 or 15 years' growth. The trees of 

 this species, and of several of its varieties, in the garden of the Horticultural So- 

 ciety, and in the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges, have attained the height of 30 ft- 

 and upwards, in 10 years from the time they were planted. There is, perhaps, no 

 American tree respectmg which so much has been said and done, in Europe, as 

 the locust. It was one of the first trees that we received from America, and 

 it has been more extensively propagated than any other, both in France and Eng- 

 land. It has been alternately extolled and neglected in both countries ; and even 

 at the present time, though the beauty of its foliage and flowers is generally ac- 

 knowledged, and though it has, at different periods, been enthusiastically praised 

 by different writers, for the valuable properties of its wood, it cannot he con- 

 sidered as holding a high rank as a timber tree, or as being w orth planting with 

 a view to profit. We [)ass over many curious and historical facts respecting the 

 locust tree, for which we refer to the 1st edit, of this work, and come to the 

 year 1823, when an extraordinary sensation was excited in Britain respecting 

 this tree by Cobbett. This writer, while in America, from 1817 to 1819, " was 

 convinced that nothing in the timber way could be so great a benefit as the 

 general cultivation of this tree." On his return to England he commenced 

 nurseryman, and the name of locust, as applied to this tree, being, before 

 Cobbett's time, almost forgotten in England, many persons, in consequence, 

 thought it was a new tree. Hence, while quantities of plants of Robinia 

 Pseiid-^cacia stood unasked for in the nurseries, the locust, which every one 

 believed could only be had genuine from Mr. Cobbett, could not be grown by 

 him in sufficient quantities to supply the demand. After creating a prodigious 

 sensation for a few years, the locust mania entirely subsided, and the tree is 

 now, as it was before Cobbett's time, planted only, or chiefly, for ornament. 



2 2. R. visco^sA Vent. The c\a.mmy-barked Robinia. 



Identification. Vent. Hort Cels., t. 4. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 292. ; I>on's Mill., 2. p. 238. 

 Synonymes. R. glatlndsa Bot. Mag. 560. ; R. montana Bartram \ the Rose-flowering Locust. 

 Engravings. Vent, Hort. Cels., t. 4. ; Bot. Mag., t. 560., as R. glutindsa ; the plate of this tree in 

 Arb. Brit., 1st edit,, voL v. ; and our fig. 38i 



Spec. Char., i^c. Branches and legumes glandular and clammy. Racemes 

 crowded, erect. Bracteas concave, deciduous, each ending in a long bristle. 



