THE PEA FAMILY. 275 



mountain slopes, the natives secure its stems to construct their log cabins as 

 its wood resists decay almost longer than any other. Pins and tree nails 

 largely are made of it and it is greatly valued in ship-building. Its unusual 

 strength caused it to appeal strongly to the Indians for the making of their 

 bows. 



BOYNTON'S ROBINIA. {Plate LXXXV.) 

 Robinia Boynibni. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Pea. Irregular. 8-15 /iv/. H igJi vtountuins 0/ May, June. 



Nor til Carolina. 



Flowers: showy; purplish pink ; slightly if at all fragrant; growing on short 

 pubescent pedicels in long axillary racemes. Corolla : papilionaceous, the stan- 

 dard rounded and notched at the apex, the lateral lobes being narrow. AWl: 

 enclosing the stamens. Stamens : ten ; diadelphous. Pistil: one ; style, pubes- 

 cent. Leaves: compound; odd-pinnate having from nine to fifteen leaflets, with 

 short pubescent petiolules ; ovate or oval, pointed or rounded at tiic apex and 

 rounded at the base, the midrib projecting a bristle ; entire; thin; glabrous at 

 least in age. A shrub or small tree. 



In some primitive corner of the forest near Highlands, North Carolina, 

 this comparatively new species of Robinia was found by Mr. Boynton of Bilt- 

 more and is named in his honour. Although it is not a great tree like the 

 locust, Robinia pseudacacia, it displays in its manner of growth some of 

 the same characteristics, while its fiovvers approach most closely to those of 

 the rose acacia, Robinia hispida, and yet are without their most prominent 

 trait, innumerable stiff hairs. It therefore holds a place quite its own and is 

 indeed a charming individual. 



R. viscbsa, clammy locust, may be found either as a small slender tree, or 

 as a shrub. Its flowers a delicate rose colour embower it with loveliness 

 although they are without much fragrance. The claminess of the branchlets 

 and leaf-stalks, however, is the mark by which the species may best be 

 known. In the high mountains through its range, especially those of North 

 Carolina, it is abundant while elsewhere it is not common. 



R. hispida, rose acacia, or bristly locust, is really the moss locust, holding 

 among the acacias the same place as the moss rose does among roses. The 

 calyxes of its pink blossoms, petioles, and midribs of the leaves as well as al- 

 most every available part of the plant, are covered with bristles purplish, or 

 hazy in colour and which give it an extremely odd and unusual look. It is 

 a branching, exquisite shrub and traverses the mountains from Georgia to 

 Virginia. In English gardens sometimes it is cultivated as a wall tree 

 where it finds the warmth and protection from high winds it requires to 

 attain its greatest beauty. Occasionally we hear it erroneously called the 

 Rose of Sharon. 



