604 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



1. Cercis canadensisL. Redbud. Judas-tree. 



Leaves broad-ovate, acute or acuminate and often abruptly contracted at apex into a 

 short broad point, truncate or more or less cordate at base, entire, glabrous with the ex- 

 ception of axillary tufts of white hairs, or sometimes more or less pubescent below, 3 '-5' 

 long and broad; turning in the autumn before falling bright clear yellow; petioles 2'-5' 

 in length. Flowers \' long, on pedicels \'-\' in length and fascicled 4-8 together; rarely 

 white (var. alba Rehdr.). Fruit fully grown in the south by the end of May and at the 

 north at midsummer, and then pink or rose color, 2'-3|' long, falling late in the autumn 

 or in early winter; seeds about j' long. 



A tree, sometimes 40-50 high, with a straight trunk usually separating 10-12 from 

 the ground into stout branches covered with smooth light brown or gray bark, and form- 



Fig. 554 



ing an upright or often a wide flat head, and slender glabrous somewhat angled branch- 

 lets, brown and lustrous during their first season, becoming dull and darker the following 

 year and ultimately dark or grayish brown. Bark of the trunk about \' thick and divided 

 by deep longitudinal fissures into long narrow plates, the bright red-brown surface separat- 

 ing into thin scales. Wood heavy, hard, not strong, close-grained, rich dark brown tinged 

 with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 8-10 layers of annual growth. 



Distribution. Borders of streams and rich bottom-lands, forming, especially west of 

 the Alleghany Mountains, an abundant undergrowth to the forest; valley of the Delaware 

 River, New Jersey, central and southern Pennsylvania southward to northern Florida, 

 northern Alabama and southern Mississippi (Crystal Springs, Copiah County), and west- 

 ward to southwestern Ontario (Point Pelee, Essex County), and through southern Michi- 

 gan to southern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, western Oklahoma (Major 

 and Dewey Counties), Louisiana, and the valley of the Brazos River, Texas; and on the 

 Sierra Madre of Nuevo Leon; common and of its largest size in southwestern Arkansas, 

 Oklahoma and eastern Texas, and in early spring a conspicuous feature of the landscape. 



Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northeastern states, and occasionally in 

 western Europe. 



2. Cercis reniformis Engl. Redbud. 



Cercis texensis Sarg. 



Leaves reniform, when they unfold light green and slightly pilose, and at maturity 

 subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler, glabrous or pubescent 

 on the lower surface, and 2'-3' in diameter; petioles l'-2' in length. Flowers about %' 



