ROBINIA, OR FALSE ACACIA. 55 



It may also be propagated by suckers, which are thrown 

 up in abundance, by cuttings of the roots or branches, 

 and by large truncheons, but these different modes are 

 not often resorted to when seed can be procured. 



In Britain, it is very free from the attacks of insects, 

 both as regards the foliage and wood ; but the bark and 

 shoots of young plants are so much to the taste of hares 

 and rabbits, that where they abound it is very difficult to 

 rear the tree without some artificial protection ; and to do 

 this, when it is intended to plant it upon an extensive 

 scale, becomes a very serious inconvenience. 



In North America, the native country of the species, it 

 is extensively distributed, being found in most of the United 

 States, and in the Canadas : it does not, however, appear 

 to have any great power of occupancy, as Michaux remarks 

 that it forms a much smaller part of the forests than several 

 other kinds of trees, and that it is nowhere found occupy- 

 ing exclusively tracts even of a few acres. It seems to 

 attain its greatest magnitude in the rich lands of Kentucky, 

 where specimens sometimes attain the height of seventy or 

 eighty feet, with a trunk of four feet in diameter. Such 

 gigantic individuals are, however, rare, and its usual di- 

 mensions in other districts seldom reach one half of the 

 above. 



Loudon observes, that even in its native country, it 

 seldom if ever is found with a clean straight trunk that will 

 admit of being sawn up into boards of even moderate 

 dimensions. In America, the principal consumption of the 

 Locust is for posts, which, if seasoned before they are 

 driven into the ground, are estimated to last forty years ; 

 but, as Michaux observes, the durability is wonderfully 

 aifected by the soil and situation in which the trees have 



