TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



207 



upon the cool night breezes. The luscious honey scent the 

 flowers cast about is one of its most seductive charms. There 

 is in the southern part of New J'^rsey an avenue of these trees 

 which for many generations was the admiration of those that 

 passed beneath them. Then a certain borer, called painted cly- 

 tus, found them cut and set about the poor work of destruction. 

 Such ravages have thus been made among these trees that to-day 

 many of them are but dark, uncanny stumps with a mass of 

 sucKers growing from their tops. Now and then one is seen 

 that has for some reason been less molested than the others, 

 and it stands out as though to testify to the departed glory of 

 its comrades. In fact, away from its native forests it is almost 

 impossible to protect the tree from such damage. This is 

 unfortunate, as its beauty has caused it to be perhaps more 

 planted in Europe and in America than any other tree. 



The wood of the locust tree is very valuable. It is c'osely 

 grained, heavy and especially strong when in contact with the 

 ground. Above all others it is preferred for the making of 

 treenails, and it is used for posts in vessels and for the masts 

 of ships. Long ago its excellence was known to the Indians 

 of Virginia, and from it their bows were constructed. 



CLAMMY LOCUST. {Plate CIX) 



Robinia viscbsa. 



One of the differences between this species of Robinia and 

 the preceding one is that its rough leaf-stems and branchlets 

 are clammy. Then it is a smaller tree and sometimes descends 

 to a shrub of from five to ten feet high. Its pink flowers grow 

 in erect or drooping, compact racemes. They are very showy, 

 but their colour hardly compensates for the sweet scent and 

 more graceful growth of the flowers of Robinia Pscudacacia. 

 Still it is one of our most rare and beautiful trees, and it is to 

 be lamented that it does not occur more generally in a wild 



