
171 
LEGUMINOS: PULSE FAMILY. 
37.--Locust. (Robinia Neo-Mexicana, Gray.) 
Usually a small tree, 20 to 25 feet, with a diameter of 3 to 6 inches; or 
a shrub under 6 feet in height. It oceurs in southern Colorado, south- 
western and western New Mexico (and in Arizona and southern Utah 
between 4,500 and 7,000 feet elevation). It is said to reach its best de- 
velopment in the valley of the Purgatoire River, southeastern Colorado. 
At high elevations often reduced to ashrub. The wood is heavy, very 
hard, and strong. 
Description.—Leaves composed of from 44 to 94 pairs of elliptical leaflets, which are 
more or less clothed with a whitish silky down, especially prominent on very young 
leaves. Leaf-stemsand branchlets thickly set with stiff, straight, glandular hairs, as 
also are the pods. The latter are flat, often jointed, and vary in length from 4 to 3% 
inches, with a width of not more than 4 aninch; the end of the pod terminates in a 
eurvedawn. Tworather strong thorns } to 4 an inch long) at the base of each leaf- 
stalk. Flowers showy, purplish. 
38.—FRIGOLITO. (Sophora secundiflora, Lagasca.) 
Chiefly a shrub, forming dense growths along streams or growing 
sparingly on rocky hill sides; as a tree it is seldom more than 30 feet 
high, with aslendertrunk. It extends from the mountains of New Mex- 
ico to the Gulf coast of Texas, and where large enough to be available 
its hard heavy wood is highly esteemed for fuel. Very ornamental in 
- appearance. 
Description.—Leaves compound, evergreen, with from 3} to 54—scarcely opposite— 
_ pairs of leaflets; the latter 1 to 2} inches long and } to 1 inch wide, elliptic-obloug 
or ovate, with a wedge-shaped base and a usually rounded apex ; margin entire, 
smooth, offen shiny above; leaf-stems with a groove on top, and when young vel- 
_ yety, as are the ftlower-stems. Pods thick, woody, silky, with 1 to 2 speherical or 
elliptical (rarely 3 or 4 fertile) joints, which are } of an inch in diameter and contain 
one or two red, very hard-shelled beans, bearing a deep white sear. They are said 
_ to have produced poisonous effects in persons who have eaten them, although the 
_ Angora goats feed upon the leaves of the plant and often swallow the beans without 
_ injury; but the shells of the latter are rarely, if ever, crushed by the animal’s tecth. 
_ 39.—MrEsquit. ALGAROBA. HOoNEY-Pop. HonrEy Locust. (Pre 
sopis juliflora, De Candolle.) 
A tree of great economic importance. It is found in southern Colo- 
rado, and through New Mexico (to southern California ; occuring also 
_in western Texas, southern Utah, and Nevada, Mexico, and southward). 
_ Along streams and in valleys it sometimes forms forests of considerable 
extent, though never attaining a height of more than 50 feet, with a 
_ diameter of 1 to 24 feet; commonly much smaller, and in dry rocky situa- 
tions, especially those subject to annual burning, reduced to ashrub; but 
the root system is then enormously developed—locally termed “ under- 

