LIGNUM-VITAE LOCUST. 235 



ft.; diam. 14 ft. S.G. 794522. Pale yellow, white or 

 reddish-white, light, soft, close-grained, easily split, with a feebly 

 silky lustre, not very durable, being liable to become "worm- 

 eaten " ; annual rings indistinct ; pith-rays fine but distinct ; 

 vessels scarcely visible, equally distributed (Fig. 54). Though not 

 durable where exposed to the weather, Linden wood stands fairly 

 well when thoroughly dried and kept in a uniform atmosphere or 

 protected by paint or varnish. Used for sabots, as blind-wood in 

 pianofortes and other furniture, in turnery, especially for 

 druggists' boxes, for carving, as in the beautiful work of Grinling 

 Gibbons, for leather-cutters' planks, and for gunpowder-charcoal. 

 Imported from the Baltic for the piano trade. 



Lime, American. See Bass-wood. 



Locust, in Guiana and the West Indies (Hymenwa Courbaril L. : 

 Order Legumindsce). " Simiri," "Courbaril." Span. " Algarrobo." 

 Height 6080 ft. ; diam. 810 ft. S.G. 1191904. W 4959. 

 E 5491018 tons. / 4-548-13. fc 2-235-41. fs -49 -585. R 

 333 kilos. Fine reddish-brown, streaked with veins, hard, com- 

 pact, close and even grained, easily worked, elastic, taking a 

 beautiful polish, not splitting or warping in seasoning. Used 

 for ships' planks, engineering, tree-nails, furniture, and cabinet- 

 work. 



Locust or Black Locust in the United States are names used 

 indiscriminately for the allied Robinia pseudacdcia and Gleditschia 

 triacdnthos, the former known distinctively as the Yellow, the 

 latter as the Honey or Sweet Locust. 



Robinia pseudacdcia L. (Order Legwmindsce). Southern United 

 States. Height 75 ft. or more ; diam. 3 ft. or more. Sapwood 

 very narrow, comprising generally only five rings, yellowish-white ; 

 heart yellowish-brown, with shades of red and green, very heavy, 

 hard, strong, tough, firm, offering the greatest resistance to com- 

 pression in the direction of the fibres, elastic, shrinking consider- 

 ably in seasoning, but very durable, especially in contact with 

 soil. Vessels all plugged with thin-walled tyloses and appearing 

 as clear yellow spots : those in the spring-wood very large, 

 forming a broad pore-circle, those in the autumn-wood often in 



