44 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



to give an idea of it's being a native of the soil. 

 There it adds utility to luxury, and profit to 

 beauty, for the turner finds the wood both 

 hard and firm, while the joiner uses it for 

 durability, and the cabinet-maker for the 

 beauty of it's yellow and brown veins; nor 

 must we forget a singular quality in this tree, 

 which is, that it burns well even on the day 

 that it is felled; a property of no small import- 

 ance to a country where wood continues to 

 be the only fuel. This tree grows from fifty 

 to seventy feet in height, and so rapidly when 

 young, that it is not uncommon to see shoots 

 of this tree six or eight feet long in one 

 summer. In New England, we are told of a 

 Robinia tree, of forty years old, that was in 

 1782 sixty feet high and four feet ten inches 

 in girth, at three feet from the ground. This 

 timber has been employed with success in 

 Virginia for ship-building, and found to be 

 far superior to American oak, elm, or ash, for 

 that purpose ; it is even said to be as durable 

 as the best white oak, and esteemed preferable 

 for axletrees of carriages, trenails for ships, 

 &c. Most of the houses which were built at 

 Boston in New England, on the first settling 

 of the English, were constructed of this tim- 

 ber. The native Americans make their bows 



