182 TREES 



numbering more than one hundred leaflets, each averaging 

 two inches in length. When the tree turns to gold in 

 autumn, it is a sight to draw all eyes. 



The flower spray is large, but the flowers are small, im- 

 perfect, salver-form, purplish green — the fertile ones form- 

 ing thick, clumsy pods that dangle in clusters, and seem to 

 weigh down the stiff branchlets. The fresh pulp used to be 

 made into a decoction used in homeopathic practice. The 

 ripe seeds were used in Revolutionary times as a substitute 

 for coffee. How the pioneer ever crushed them is a 

 puzzle to all who have tried to break one with a nut- 

 cracker. In China the fresh pulp of the pods of a sister 

 species is used as we use soap. 



The wood is not hard, but in other respects it resembles 

 other locust lumber. It is sometimes used in cabinet 

 work, being a rich, reddish broTvii, with pale sapwood. 



The range of the coffee tree extends from New York to 

 Nebraska, and south through Pennsylvania, Tennessee 

 and Oklahoma, with bottom lands as the tree's preference. 

 Nowhere is this species common. Occasionally, it is 

 planted as a street tree, in this country and abroad. 



The Redbud 



Cercis Canadensis, Linn. 



The redbud covers its delicate angled, thomless branch- 

 lets with a profusion of rosy-purple blossoms, typically 

 pea-like, before the leaves appear. The unusual color, so 

 abundant where little redbuds form thickets on the out- 

 skirts of a woodland, leads to a very general recognition of 

 this tree among people who go into the April woods for 

 early violets. It vies with the white banner of the shad- 



