FOREST TREES. 



215 



Robinia Psendafaiia^ L. — Common Locust or False Acacia. — 

 Leaves composed of from nine to seventeen small, oblong-ovate 

 leaflets. Flowers white, fragrant, in pendulous racemes, three to 

 five inches long ; pods flat, containing four to six hard, small, 

 and rather flattish seeds. Usually a slender tree, sixty to eighty 

 feet high, with stem two to three feet in diameter. Wood white, 

 or greenish-yellow, very hard and close-grained, and when of 

 slow growth, it is very durable, but when grown on very rich 

 soils, as for instance on the rich western prairie soils, it is far 

 less durable than when raised on lighter and poorer land. 

 When planted singly or in small groves, the trees are usually 

 infested with borers, but in larger plantations or forests the 

 insect confines itself mainly to trees, the stems of w^hich are 

 exposed to the direct rays of the sun. A well known tree, 

 extensively naturalized in all of the Atlantic States, but native 

 of Southern Pennsylvania and southward along the mountains, 

 and by some authors said to extend west to Missouri. It is a 

 tree very much inclined to spread by suckers from the roots, as 

 well as from the seed, which are usually widely scattered by 

 winds. 



R. Yiscosa^ Vent. — Clammy Locust. — Small branches and leaf- 

 stalks clammy, spines very small. Leaflets eleven to twenty- 

 five, ovate and oblong, obtuse or slightly heart-shaped at base, 

 slightly downy beneath, tipped with a short bristle. Flowers 

 in a short, rather compact, roundish, upright raceme, rose- 

 color and inodorous. Pods three to five-seeded. A small tree, 

 from thirty to forty feet high. Wood said to be valuable. 

 Native of North Carolina and Georgia in the mountains, along 

 the banks of streams. Often cultivated as an ornamental tree. 

 Produces suckers in great abundance if the roots are disturbed 

 or broken. 



R. hispida, Linn. — Bristly or Rose Acacia. — Branches thickly 

 covered with small, slender bristles. Leaflets eleven to eighteen, 

 ovate, or oblong-ovate, rounded at the base, and tipped with a 

 long bristle. Flowers large, in loose, and mostly pendulous 

 racemes ; bright pink or rose-color, very showy and handsome. 

 There are several wild and cultivated varieties, all low, strag- 

 gling shrubs, their roots running in light soils to a great dis- 

 tance, and producing numerous suckers. 



SALix^ Tour. — Willow, Osier, 



An immense genus of about a hundred and sixty species, the 

 larger part belonging to Europe and Asia, a half dozen inhabit- 



