AMERICAN FOREST TREES 649 



TEXAS REDBUD (Cercis reniformis) differs somewhat from the 

 common redbud, but it takes a botanist to point out the differences. 

 The largest trees are forty feet high and a foot in diameter; the range 

 extends from eastern Texas into Mexico; the wood closely resembles that 

 of the other species, and is not known to be used for any purpose. 



CALIFORNIA REDBUD (Cercis occidenialis) is often classed as a shrub, 

 but Sudworth gives it a place among the forest trees of the Pacific coast. 

 The pea-shaped flowers are a clear magenta color. The pods turn purple 

 when ripening but afterwards change to russet-brown. The wood is 

 dark yellowish-brown, but because of the smallness of the trunks, it can 

 never be important. The tree is found along the California mountains, 

 six hundred miles north and south ; is an abundant seeder, and is valuable 

 as a protection to slopes and ravines, and as an ornament. 



HORSEBEAN (Parkinsonia aculeato) is generally called retama in 

 the valley of the lower Rio Grande in Texas where the species attains its 

 largest size. Trees are occasionally thirty feet high and a foot or more 

 in diameter. Trunks usually separate in several stems near the ground. 

 The range extends from southern Texas to California, and the species 

 is naturalized in south Florida, the West Indies, and many tropical 

 countries. Leaves vary in form, and are occasionally eighteen inches 

 long. Fruit consists of pods, each containing from two to eight beans. 

 The yellow flowers are small and fragrant; the bark on young twigs is 

 green, but on older trunks is brown. The brown, however, is easily 

 rubbed off, exposing the green beneath, as may be seen in school grounds 

 hi some of the southern towns in Texas where this tree has been planted 

 for ornament, and abrasions, due to children climbing about the spread- 

 ing stems, keep the bark green. The upper branches are armed with 

 thorns which discourage the climbing propensities of children. The 

 wood is heavy, hard, tinged with yellow, and is made into small novelties, 

 but is not of much importance. 



SMALL-LEAF HORSEBEAN (Parkinsonia microphylla) is well named, 

 for the compound leaves, with four or six pah's of leaflets, are about an 

 inch long, covered with hairs, and fall at the end of a few weeks. Conse- 

 quently, the tree is bare most of the year, except for the pale yellow 

 flowers which appear in spring before the leaves, and the clusters of 

 striped pods, each containing from one to three beans. The pods are 

 nearly always present, for they have the pea family habit of adhering to 

 the branches a long time. Trees reach a height of fifteen or twenty 

 feet, and a diameter of ten inches or less. The wood is very hard and 

 dense, in color deep yellowish-brown, often mottled and streaked with 

 dull red ; the sapwood thick and yellow. The wood is suitable for small 

 articles, but its scarcity renders it of little importance. It is found in the 



