260 The Acacias: The Pears and Apples. 



ten inches in diameter. In extreme cases, it becomes two feet 

 thick. The yield of tanning extract varies from thirty to forty-five 

 per cent. 



1030. THE VICTORIA MYALL (Acacia homalophylla). This lias a 

 dark-brown wood, and is much used for turner's work, and is valued 

 on account of its solidity and fragrance. It is also much used for 

 the manufacture of tobacco pipes. 



1031. THE BLACKWOOD (A. melanoxylon) grows on river flats and 

 in moist, fertile valleys. In irrigated valleys and a deep soil, it 

 will attain a height of eighty feet, and several feet in diameter. 

 The wood is prized for furniture, railway carriages, boat building, 

 billiard tables, the sounding-boards of pianos, etc., and for veneers. 

 It takes a fine polish, and is fully equal to the best of walnut. It 

 bends very well when steamed. 



1032. YELLOW-WOOD (Cladrastis tinctoria). This species, de- 

 scribed by Michaux as the " Virgilia latea" and often known among 

 nurserymen as the " virgilia," 1 occurs native in deep, fertile soil in 

 Western Tennessee and in Kentucky, growing, as a tree, from 

 twenty to forty feet high, and sometimes a foot in diameter. It has 

 a smooth, greenish bark, and a yellow heart-wood, which im- 

 parts its color to water, and is used as a domestic dye. It bears 

 large, white flowers, and is cultivated successfully for ornament in 

 the middle latitudes, and as far north as Central New York. 



THE PEARS AND APPLES (Genus Pirus). 



1033. This numbers about forty species, natives of the North 

 Temperate Zone, and widely cultivated for their fruit. In some 

 cases, they are valuable for their wood, which is solid, fine-grained, 

 and of uniform texture ; well adapted for turning, and for certain 

 kinds of wood-engraving, although much inferior to the boxwood. 

 It makes an excellent fuel, and in some regions it may be cultivated 

 profitably for this use. 



1034. In the open country east of the Cascade mountains in 

 Washington Territory, it appears to be particularly well adapted for 



1 The Virgilia is a distinct genus, not represented in the native flora of 

 the United States. The V. capensis is a tree growing in South Africa. 

 There is but one other species of the Cladrastis, and that grows in Mant- 

 choura, in Asia. 



