AMERICAN FOREST TREES 51:; 



into lumber. Some of that in the lower Mississippi valley might pass as 

 sycamore if inspection is not too conscientiously carried out. The 

 medullary rays, being darker than the body of the wood, suggest syca- 

 more in quarter-sawed stock. Some of it goes into furniture, finish, 

 balusters, newel posts, panels, and molding, particularly in eastern 

 Texas. In Louisiana, where wood of similar texture and appearance 

 might be expected, it is not looked on with favor, but is employed only 

 in the cheapest, roughest work. 



The principal use of the wood is for posts and railroad ties. It lasts 

 well, and is strong. Claims have been made that it is generally equal and 

 in some ways superior to locust. It is difficult to see on what these claims 

 are based. It is lighter, less elastic, and much weaker. Figures showing 

 the comparative durability of the two woods are not available, but in 

 like situations, locust would doubtless last much longer. As timber 

 trees, the former may have the advantage over locust in being free from 

 attacks of borers, attaining greater size, and thriving in a much larger 

 area. It has been planted for ornament in other lands than this, and is 

 now prospering in all the important countries of the temperate zone. 

 One variety is thornless, and is known to botanists as Gleditsia triacan- 

 ihos Icevis; another has short thorns. 



WATER LOCUST (Glediisia aquaticd) looks so much like honey locust that the 

 two are often supposed to be the same species in Louisiana; yet there are a number 

 of differences. Water locust has fewer thorns and they are smaller, and often flat 

 like a knife blade. The pods are entirely different from those of honey locust, being 

 short and wide. The two species share the same range to some extent, but that of 

 water locust is smaller, extending from South Carolina to Texas, Illinois, and Missouri ; 

 but the best of the species is west of the lower Mississippi where trees may reach a 

 height of sixty feet and a diameter of two. The wood is heavy, hard, and strong, the 

 heartwood rich bright brown, tinged with red, the sapwood yellow. The wood is 

 much like that of honey locust, and when used at all is employed in the same way. 



TEXAS LOCUST (Gleditsia texana) is of no importance as a timber tree, and 

 deserves mention only because its extremely restricted range gives it an interest. 

 It exists, as far as known, in a single grove on the bottom lands of the Brazos river, 

 near Brazoria, Texas, where some of the trees exceed 100 feet in height, and a diam- 

 eter of two. The bark is smooth and thin, the leaves resemble those of honey locust, 

 and the pods are about one-third as long. 



HUISACHE (Acacia farnesiana) is native along the Rio Grande in Texas, but it 

 is running wild in Florida from planted trees. It is one of the most widely distributed 

 species in the world, both by natural dispersal and by planting; and it is one of the 

 handsomest members of the large group of acacias which includes more than 400 

 species. It bears delicate double-compound leaves, small and graceful. A tree in 

 full leaf in its native wilds along the Rio Grande looks like a trembling fluffy mass of 

 green silk. Nature formed the tree for ornament, not for timber. It attains a height 

 of from twenty to forty feet, diameter eighteen inches or less. Trunk usually 

 divides into several branches near the ground. Perhaps the only place in this 

 country where the wood is used is in southern Texas where is it called "casrie," a 



