THE LOCUSTS 18S 



bush, in doing honor to the spring. Later, the broad 

 heart-shaped leaves cover and adorn the tree, concealing 

 the dainty tapering pods that turn to purple as the polished 

 leaf blades, unmarred by insect or wind, change from green 

 to clear yellow before falling. 



Tradition has given this charming little locust tree the 

 name, "Judas-tree," from its European cousin, rumored to 

 have been the one upon which the choice of Judas fell when 

 he went out and hanged himself. It is an unearned 

 stigma, better forgotten, for it does prejudice the planter 

 against a tree that should be on every lawn, preferably 

 showing its rosy flowers against a bank of evergreens. 



Its natural range extends from New Jersey to Florida 

 and west from Ontario to Nebraska and southward. The 

 largest specimens reach fifty feet in height in Texas and 

 Arkansas, in river bottom lands, and in the Southwest the 

 tree is an abundant undergrowth — makmg a beautiful 

 woodland pictiu^e in early spring. 



The Yellow-wood 

 Cladrastis lutea, K. Koch. 



The yellow-wood was named by the wife of a pioneer, 

 durely, for she soaked the chips and got from them a clear 

 yellow dye, highly prized for the permanent color it gave to 

 her homespun cotton and woolen cloth that must have 

 gone colorless, but for dyestuffs discoverable in the woods. 



The satiny grain of the wood, and its close hard texlure, 

 commended it to the woodsman, who used it for gun 

 stocks. But the tree is too small to be important for the 

 lumber it yields. 



In winter the smootli pale bark of the "Virgilia," as the 



