66 
LOCUST. 
ab.ove the surface. The young plants should be eut the second year, to 
invigorate their roots. The seeds of the Alder are very small, and are in 
danger of perishing if they are not very lightly covered with earth. 
This tree, to which so much importance is attached in Europe, will pro- 
bably at a future period be considered as a valuable acquisition in America, 
especially in the States east of the river Hudson. 
LOCUST. 
Diadelphia decandria. Linn. L'eguminosæ. Juss. 
Robinia pseudo-acacia. R. stipulis spinosis ; foliis impari-pinnatis ; racemis 
cernuis seu pendulis ; calicis dentibus muiicis. 
Obs. Flores albi. 
One of the first trees introduced into Europe from the forests of North 
America, east of the Mississippi, was the Locust. For the acquisition of 
this tree, still more interesting for the excellent properties of its wood than 
for the beauty of its foliage and of its flowers, we are indebted to J. Robin, 
a French botanist, who received it from Canada, and cultivated it on a 
large scale, in the reign of Henry IV., about the year 1601. Since that 
period it has been so extensively propagated, that it has become universally 
known in France, England and Germany. To commemorate the introduc- 
tion of so valuable a tree, and to express the acknowledgments due to the 
person who had conferred this benefit upon the Old Continent, Linnaeus 
gave the genus to which it belongs the name of Robinia. 
In the Atlantic States, the Locust begins to grow naturally in Pennsyl- 
vania, between Lancaster and Harrisburg, in the latitude of 40° 20'. West 
of the Mountains, it is found 2 or 3 degrees further north ; which is 
explained by an observation already repeated, that, in proceeding toward 
the West, the climate becomes milder and the soil more fertile. But the 
Locust is most multiplied in the South-West, and abounds in all the valleys 
between the chains of the Alleghany Mountains, particularly in Limestone 
Valley. It is also common in all the Western States, and in the territory 
