THE LOCUSTS 179 



chatter querulously, as the wind plays among the tree- 

 tops. 



The black locust is found from Pennsylvania to Iowa, 

 and south from Georgia to Oklahoma. The lumber is 

 coarse-grained, heavy, hard, and exceptionally durable in 

 contact with the soil or water. This makes it especially 

 adaptable for fence posts and boat bottoms. Crystals, 

 called raphides, in the wood cells, take the edges off tools 

 used in working locust lumber. Yet it is sought by 

 manufacturers of mill cogs and wheel hubs, and railroad 

 companies plant the trees for ties. 



The locust-borer has ruined plantations of this tree of 

 late years, and trees in the woods have become infested 

 except in mountainous regions not yet reached by the pest. 

 Trees become distorted with warty excrescences and the 

 lumber is riddled with burrows made by the larvae. Until 

 the entomologist finds a remedy in some natural parasite 

 of the locust-borer, the outlook for locust culture seems 

 dark enough. No insecticide can reach an enemy that 

 hides in the trunk of the tree it destroys. 



The Clammy Locust 



R. viscosa, Vent. 



The clammy locust has beautifully^ shaded pink flowers in 

 clusters, each blossom accented by the dark red, shiny 

 calyx, and the glandular exudation of wax, that covers all 

 new growth. A favorite ornamental locust, this little tree 

 has been widely distributed in this and other temperate 

 countries of the globe. Its leaves are delicately feathery, 

 with the dew-like gum l)rightening them, as it does also the 

 hairy, curling pods that flush as they ripen. In winter the 



