DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
171 
extrait which greatly resembles orange-flower water, and 
is used for the same purposes. 
As an ornamental tree we do not esteem the locust 
highly. The objections to it are, 1st, its meagreness and 
lightness of foliage, producing but little shade ; secondly, 
the extreme brittleness of its branches, which are liable to 
be broken and disfigured by every gale of wind ; and lastly 
the abundance of suckers which it produces. Notwith- 
standing these defects, we would not entirely banish the 
locust from our pleasure-grounds ; for its light foliage of a 
fresh and pleasing green may often be used to advantage- 
in producing a variety with other trees ; and its very fra- 
grant blossoms are beautiful, when in the beginning of 
summer they hang in loose pendulous clusters from among 
its light foliage. These will always speak sufficiently in 
its favor to cause it to be planted more or less, where a 
variety of trees is desired. It should, however, be re- 
membered that the foliage comes out at a late period in 
spring, and falls early in autumn, which we consider objec- 
tions to any tree that is to be planted in the close vicinity 
of the mansion. It is valuable for its extremely rapid 
growth when young ; as during the first ten or fifteen years 
of its life it exceeds in thrifty shoots almost all other forest 
trees : but it is comparatively short-lived, and in twenty 
years’ time many other trees would completely overtop and 
outstrip it. It is easily propagated by seed, which is by 
far the best mode of raising it, and it prefers a deep, rich, 
sandy loam. 
The locust can be cultivated to advantage as a timber 
O 
tree, only upon deep, mellow, and rather rich, sandy soils ; 
there, its growth is wonderfully vigorous, and an immense 
number may be grown upon a small area of ground. 
There are but two distinct species of locust which attain 
