CALIFORNIA LAUREL

CALIFORNIA LAUREL[528]California laurelCalifornia Laurel

[528]

California laurelCalifornia Laurel

California Laurel

CALIFORNIA LAUREL(Umbellularia Californica)This tree’s range lies in southern Oregon and in California. It is a member of the laurel family and is closely related to the eastern sassafras and the red and the swamp bays of the southern states; but it is not near kin to the eastern laurels which, strange as it may appear, do not belong to the laurel family, notwithstanding the names they bear.The people of California and Oregon have several names for this interesting tree. It is known as mountain laurel, California bay tree, myrtle tree, cajeput, California olive, spice tree, laurel, bay tree, oreodaphne, and California sassafras.Those who call it laurel name it on account of its large, lustrous, thick leaves which adhere to the branches from two to six years. All new leaves do not come at once, as with most trees, but appear a few at a time during the whole summer.The names which connect this tree with sassafras, spice and cajeput are based on odor and taste. All members of the laurel family in this country are characterized by pungent, aromatic odor and taste, and the one under consideration shares these properties in a remarkable degree. When the leaves and the green bark are crushed, they give off a light, volatile oil in follicles which float in the air, like those of an onion, and when inhaled it produces severe pain over the eyes, and may induce dizziness and violent sneezing. Though the symptoms are alarming to one who is undergoing the experience for the first time, no serious inconvenience follows. Dried leaves are capable of producing a similar effect but with less violence. The California laurel’s close relationship to the camphor tree is readily believed by persons who inhale some of the oily spray from the crushed leaves.Attempts have been made to produce the commercial oil of cajeput, or a substitute for it, by distilling the leaves and bark of this laurel. A passable substitute has been manufactured, but it cannot be marketed as the genuine article. By distilling the fruit a product known as umbellulic acid has been obtained.The California laurel carries a very dense crown of leaves. This is due partly to the old crops which hang so long, and to the tree’s habit of lengthening its leading shoots during the growing season, and the constant appearance of young leaves on the lengthening shoots. It can stand an almost unlimited amount of shade itself, and is by no means backward in giving abundance of shade to small growth which is tryingto struggle up to light from below. It delights in dense thickets, but it prefers thickets of its own species.Its fruiting habits and its disposition to occupy the damp, rich soil along the banks of small water courses, are responsible for the thick stands. The fruit itself is an interesting thing. It is yellowish-green in color, as large as a good-sized olive, and looks much like it. The fruit ripens in October, and falls in time to get the benefit of the autumn rains which visit the Pacific coast. Since the trees generally grow along gulches, the fruit falls and rolls to the bottom. The first dashing rain sends a flood down the gulches, the laurel drupes are carried along and are buried in mud wherever they can find a resting place. Germination takes place soon after. The fruit remains under the mud, attached to the roots of the young plants, until the following summer.The result is that if a laurel gets a foothold in a gulch through which water occasionally flows, lines of young laurels will eventually cover the banks of the gulch as far down stream as conditions are favorable.The wood of California laurel weighs 40.60 pounds per cubic foot when kiln-dried. That is nine pounds heavier than sassafras. It is very heavy when green and sinks when placed in water. It is hard and very firm, rich yellowish brown in color, often beautifully mottled; but this applies to the heartwood only, and not to the thick sapwood.Lumbermen have discovered that the wood’s color can be materially changed by immersing the logs when green, and leaving them submerged a long time. The beautiful “black myrtle,” which has been so much admired, is nothing more than California laurel which has undergone the cold water treatment.The annual rings of growth are clearly marked by dark bands of summerwood. The rings are often wide, but not always, for sometimes the growth is very slow. The wood is diffuse-porous, and the pores are small and not numerous. The wood’s figure is brought out best by tangential sawing, as is the case with so many woods which have clearly-marked rings but small and obscure medullary rays. Figure is not uniform; that is, one trunk may produce a pattern quite different from another. The figure of some logs is particularly beautiful; these logs are selected for special purposes. Sudworth says that none of our hardwoods excels it in beautiful grain when finished, and Sargent is still more emphatic when he declares that it is “the most valuable wood produced in the forests of Pacific North America for interior finish of houses and for furniture.”The wood of this tree has more than ninety per cent of the strength of white oak, is considerably stiffer, and contains a smaller amount ofash, weight for weight of wood. The species reaches its best development in the rich valleys of southwestern Oregon, where, with the broadleaf maple, it forms a considerable part of the forest growth. The largest trees are from sixty to eighty feet high, and two to four in diameter. In crowded stands the trunks are shapely, and often measure thirty or forty feet to the first limbs; but more commonly the trunk is short.The boat yards in southwestern Oregon were the first to use California laurel for commercial purposes, but early settlers made a point of procuring it for fuel when they could. The oil in the wood causes it to burn with a cheerful blaze, and campers in the mountains consider themselves fortunate when they find a supply for the evening bonfire.Shipbuilders have drawn upon this wood for fifty years for material. It is made into pilot wheels, interior finish, cleats, crossties, and sometimes deck planking. Furniture makers long ago made a specialty of the wood for their San Francisco trade. For thirty years travelers admired the superb furniture of the Palace hotel in that city, and wondered of what wood it was made. It was the California laurel. The hotel’s furniture was hand-made, or largely so, at a time when woodworking factories were few on the Pacific coast. The furniture was finally destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake. Furniture is still one of the products made of the wood, but the quantity is small. Other products are interior finish; fixtures for banks, stores and offices; musical instruments, including organs; mathematical instruments, and carpenters’ tools, including rulers, straight-edges, spirit levels, bench screws and clamps, and handles of many kinds.Makers of novelties and small turnery find it serviceable for paper knives, pin trays, match safes, brush backs, and many articles of like kind. One of the largest uses for it is as walking beams for pumping oilwells in central and southern California. The beauty of grain has nothing to do with this use.Country blacksmiths repair wagons and agricultural implements with this wood. Farmers have long employed it about their premises for posts, gates, floors, and building material. Cooks flavor soup with the leaves, and poultrymen make henroosts of poles, believing that the wood’s odor will keep insects away. This is probably the old sassafras superstition carried west by early California settlers.Red Bay(Persea borbonia) is a southern member of the laurel family, and close akin to sassafras and the California laurel. The bark is red, hence the name; but it is known also as bay galls, laurel tree, Florida mahogany, false mahogany, and sweet bay. It grows from Virginia to Texas, but is most abundant near the coast, yet it ascends the Mississippi valley to Arkansas. The leaves remain on the tree a full year, but turn yellow toward the last, in consequence of which the species is not evergreen. In shape and color the leaves resemble laurel. The fruit is a small, dark blue drupe,with thin flesh. The wood is heavy, hard, very strong, rather brittle, bright red, with thin, lighter-colored sapwood. It was once very popular in the South for furniture. Rare pieces, some 150 years old, are still found in southern homes. The wood was exported prior to 1741 from the Carolinas, and the quantity seems to have been considerable. It was then regarded as a finer wood than mahogany. It was exported to the West Indies, where mahogany was abundant, and was made into furniture and finish for the homes of wealthy planters and merchants. An old report describes the wood as resembling “watered satin.” It was in early demand by shipbuilders, but it has now ceased to go to boat yards. Except in rare instances, it is not reported by any wood-using industries. In Texas a little is made into pin trays, small picture frames, canes, and shelves. It deserves a more important place, for when polished and finished, it is one of the handsomest woods of this country. Trees attain a height of sixty or seventy feet, and a diameter of two or three.Swamp Bay(Persea pubescens) attains a height of thirty or forty feet, but is seldom more than a foot in diameter, and is too small for saw timber. The wood is strong, heavy, rather soft, orange colored, streaked with brown, and not as handsome as its larger relative, red bay, which is associated with it from North Carolina to Mississippi. It is an evergreen in some cases, but in others the leaves turn yellow the second spring. The black fruit is a drupe nearly an inch long. The wood is without attractive figure, since its medullary rays are obscure, and the annual rings are indistinct and produce little contrast when the trunks are sawed tangentially. Color is the chief attraction that can be claimed for the wood. A little is occasionally worked into interior finish.California laurel branch

This tree’s range lies in southern Oregon and in California. It is a member of the laurel family and is closely related to the eastern sassafras and the red and the swamp bays of the southern states; but it is not near kin to the eastern laurels which, strange as it may appear, do not belong to the laurel family, notwithstanding the names they bear.

The people of California and Oregon have several names for this interesting tree. It is known as mountain laurel, California bay tree, myrtle tree, cajeput, California olive, spice tree, laurel, bay tree, oreodaphne, and California sassafras.

Those who call it laurel name it on account of its large, lustrous, thick leaves which adhere to the branches from two to six years. All new leaves do not come at once, as with most trees, but appear a few at a time during the whole summer.

The names which connect this tree with sassafras, spice and cajeput are based on odor and taste. All members of the laurel family in this country are characterized by pungent, aromatic odor and taste, and the one under consideration shares these properties in a remarkable degree. When the leaves and the green bark are crushed, they give off a light, volatile oil in follicles which float in the air, like those of an onion, and when inhaled it produces severe pain over the eyes, and may induce dizziness and violent sneezing. Though the symptoms are alarming to one who is undergoing the experience for the first time, no serious inconvenience follows. Dried leaves are capable of producing a similar effect but with less violence. The California laurel’s close relationship to the camphor tree is readily believed by persons who inhale some of the oily spray from the crushed leaves.

Attempts have been made to produce the commercial oil of cajeput, or a substitute for it, by distilling the leaves and bark of this laurel. A passable substitute has been manufactured, but it cannot be marketed as the genuine article. By distilling the fruit a product known as umbellulic acid has been obtained.

The California laurel carries a very dense crown of leaves. This is due partly to the old crops which hang so long, and to the tree’s habit of lengthening its leading shoots during the growing season, and the constant appearance of young leaves on the lengthening shoots. It can stand an almost unlimited amount of shade itself, and is by no means backward in giving abundance of shade to small growth which is tryingto struggle up to light from below. It delights in dense thickets, but it prefers thickets of its own species.

Its fruiting habits and its disposition to occupy the damp, rich soil along the banks of small water courses, are responsible for the thick stands. The fruit itself is an interesting thing. It is yellowish-green in color, as large as a good-sized olive, and looks much like it. The fruit ripens in October, and falls in time to get the benefit of the autumn rains which visit the Pacific coast. Since the trees generally grow along gulches, the fruit falls and rolls to the bottom. The first dashing rain sends a flood down the gulches, the laurel drupes are carried along and are buried in mud wherever they can find a resting place. Germination takes place soon after. The fruit remains under the mud, attached to the roots of the young plants, until the following summer.

The result is that if a laurel gets a foothold in a gulch through which water occasionally flows, lines of young laurels will eventually cover the banks of the gulch as far down stream as conditions are favorable.

The wood of California laurel weighs 40.60 pounds per cubic foot when kiln-dried. That is nine pounds heavier than sassafras. It is very heavy when green and sinks when placed in water. It is hard and very firm, rich yellowish brown in color, often beautifully mottled; but this applies to the heartwood only, and not to the thick sapwood.

Lumbermen have discovered that the wood’s color can be materially changed by immersing the logs when green, and leaving them submerged a long time. The beautiful “black myrtle,” which has been so much admired, is nothing more than California laurel which has undergone the cold water treatment.

The annual rings of growth are clearly marked by dark bands of summerwood. The rings are often wide, but not always, for sometimes the growth is very slow. The wood is diffuse-porous, and the pores are small and not numerous. The wood’s figure is brought out best by tangential sawing, as is the case with so many woods which have clearly-marked rings but small and obscure medullary rays. Figure is not uniform; that is, one trunk may produce a pattern quite different from another. The figure of some logs is particularly beautiful; these logs are selected for special purposes. Sudworth says that none of our hardwoods excels it in beautiful grain when finished, and Sargent is still more emphatic when he declares that it is “the most valuable wood produced in the forests of Pacific North America for interior finish of houses and for furniture.”

The wood of this tree has more than ninety per cent of the strength of white oak, is considerably stiffer, and contains a smaller amount ofash, weight for weight of wood. The species reaches its best development in the rich valleys of southwestern Oregon, where, with the broadleaf maple, it forms a considerable part of the forest growth. The largest trees are from sixty to eighty feet high, and two to four in diameter. In crowded stands the trunks are shapely, and often measure thirty or forty feet to the first limbs; but more commonly the trunk is short.

The boat yards in southwestern Oregon were the first to use California laurel for commercial purposes, but early settlers made a point of procuring it for fuel when they could. The oil in the wood causes it to burn with a cheerful blaze, and campers in the mountains consider themselves fortunate when they find a supply for the evening bonfire.

Shipbuilders have drawn upon this wood for fifty years for material. It is made into pilot wheels, interior finish, cleats, crossties, and sometimes deck planking. Furniture makers long ago made a specialty of the wood for their San Francisco trade. For thirty years travelers admired the superb furniture of the Palace hotel in that city, and wondered of what wood it was made. It was the California laurel. The hotel’s furniture was hand-made, or largely so, at a time when woodworking factories were few on the Pacific coast. The furniture was finally destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake. Furniture is still one of the products made of the wood, but the quantity is small. Other products are interior finish; fixtures for banks, stores and offices; musical instruments, including organs; mathematical instruments, and carpenters’ tools, including rulers, straight-edges, spirit levels, bench screws and clamps, and handles of many kinds.

Makers of novelties and small turnery find it serviceable for paper knives, pin trays, match safes, brush backs, and many articles of like kind. One of the largest uses for it is as walking beams for pumping oilwells in central and southern California. The beauty of grain has nothing to do with this use.

Country blacksmiths repair wagons and agricultural implements with this wood. Farmers have long employed it about their premises for posts, gates, floors, and building material. Cooks flavor soup with the leaves, and poultrymen make henroosts of poles, believing that the wood’s odor will keep insects away. This is probably the old sassafras superstition carried west by early California settlers.

Red Bay(Persea borbonia) is a southern member of the laurel family, and close akin to sassafras and the California laurel. The bark is red, hence the name; but it is known also as bay galls, laurel tree, Florida mahogany, false mahogany, and sweet bay. It grows from Virginia to Texas, but is most abundant near the coast, yet it ascends the Mississippi valley to Arkansas. The leaves remain on the tree a full year, but turn yellow toward the last, in consequence of which the species is not evergreen. In shape and color the leaves resemble laurel. The fruit is a small, dark blue drupe,with thin flesh. The wood is heavy, hard, very strong, rather brittle, bright red, with thin, lighter-colored sapwood. It was once very popular in the South for furniture. Rare pieces, some 150 years old, are still found in southern homes. The wood was exported prior to 1741 from the Carolinas, and the quantity seems to have been considerable. It was then regarded as a finer wood than mahogany. It was exported to the West Indies, where mahogany was abundant, and was made into furniture and finish for the homes of wealthy planters and merchants. An old report describes the wood as resembling “watered satin.” It was in early demand by shipbuilders, but it has now ceased to go to boat yards. Except in rare instances, it is not reported by any wood-using industries. In Texas a little is made into pin trays, small picture frames, canes, and shelves. It deserves a more important place, for when polished and finished, it is one of the handsomest woods of this country. Trees attain a height of sixty or seventy feet, and a diameter of two or three.Swamp Bay(Persea pubescens) attains a height of thirty or forty feet, but is seldom more than a foot in diameter, and is too small for saw timber. The wood is strong, heavy, rather soft, orange colored, streaked with brown, and not as handsome as its larger relative, red bay, which is associated with it from North Carolina to Mississippi. It is an evergreen in some cases, but in others the leaves turn yellow the second spring. The black fruit is a drupe nearly an inch long. The wood is without attractive figure, since its medullary rays are obscure, and the annual rings are indistinct and produce little contrast when the trunks are sawed tangentially. Color is the chief attraction that can be claimed for the wood. A little is occasionally worked into interior finish.

Swamp Bay(Persea pubescens) attains a height of thirty or forty feet, but is seldom more than a foot in diameter, and is too small for saw timber. The wood is strong, heavy, rather soft, orange colored, streaked with brown, and not as handsome as its larger relative, red bay, which is associated with it from North Carolina to Mississippi. It is an evergreen in some cases, but in others the leaves turn yellow the second spring. The black fruit is a drupe nearly an inch long. The wood is without attractive figure, since its medullary rays are obscure, and the annual rings are indistinct and produce little contrast when the trunks are sawed tangentially. Color is the chief attraction that can be claimed for the wood. A little is occasionally worked into interior finish.

California laurel branch

LOCUSTLocustLocust

LocustLocust

Locust

LOCUST(Robinia Pseudacacia)Locust belongs to the pea family, known in botany asLeguminosæ.[6]In most parts of its range it is known simply as locust, but in some localities it is called black locust, an allusion to the color of the bark; yellow locust, descriptive of the heartwood; white locust, referring to the bloom; red locust, probably a reference to the wood, and green locust for the same reason; acacia and false acacia; honey locust, a name which belongs to another species; post locust, because it has always been a favorite tree for fence posts; and pea-flower locust, a reference to the bloom.[6]This is a very large family, containing trees, shrubs, and vines, such as locusts, acacias, beans, and clovers. There are 430 genera in the world, and many times that many species. The United States has seventeen genera and thirty species of the pea family that are large enough to be classed as trees. Their common names follow: Florida Cat’s Claw, Huajillo, Texan Ebony, Wild Tamarind, Huisache, Texas Cat’s Claw, Devil’s Claw, Leucæna, Chalky Leucæna, Screwbean, Mesquite, Redbud, Texas Redbud, Honey Locust, Water Locust, Coffeetree, Horsebean, Small-leaf Horsebean, Greenbark Acacia, Palo Verde, Frijolito, Sophora, Yellow-wood, Eysenhardtia, Indigo Thorn, Locust, New Mexican Locust, Clammy Locust, Sonora Ironwood, Jamaica Dogwood. These species are treated separately in the following pages, and are given space according to their relative commercial importance in the particular regions where they grow.Several of the names refer to the color of the wood, and seem contradictory, for yellow, green, and red are not the same; yet the names describe with fair accuracy. Color of the heartwood varies with different trees, yellow with some, tinged with red with others, and sometimes it might be appropriately called blue locust, for the heartwood is nearer that color than any other.The natural range of locust seems to have been confined to the Appalachian mountain ranges from Pennsylvania to Georgia. It probably existed as a low shrub in parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Its range has been extended by planting until it now reaches practically all the states, but is running wild in only about half of them. It has received a great deal of attention from foresters and tree planters. It attracted notice very early, because of its hardness, strength, and lasting properties. At one time the planting of locust came nearly being a fad. In England it was supposed that it would rise to great importance in shipbuilding, and in France it was looked upon as no less important. Books were written on the subject in both English and French. All the details of planting and utilization were discussed. Its generic name,Robinia, is in honor of a Frenchman, Robin. Extravagant claimswere once made for the wood. When American ships were gaining victory after victory over English vessels in the war of 1812, it was asserted in England that the cause of American success was the locust timber in their ships. The claim may have been partly true, but other factors contributed to the phenomenal series of successes.The locust craze died a natural death. Too much was claimed for the wood. Possibilities in the way of growth were over estimated. It was assumed that the tree, if planted, would grow everywhere as vigorously as on its native mountains in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, where trees two or three feet in diameter and eighty feet high were found. Experience proved later that nature had planted the locust in the best place for it, and when transplanted elsewhere it was apt to fall short of expectations. Outside of its natural range it grows vigorously for a time, and occasionally reaches large size; but in recent years the locust borer has defeated the efforts of man to extend the range of this species and make it profitable in regions distant from its native home. The tree is often devoured piecemeal, branches and twigs breaking and falling, and trunks gradually disappearing beneath the attacks of the hungry borers. No effective method of combating the pest is known. The planting of locust trees, once so common, has now nearly ceased.Within its native range, and beyond that range when it has a chance, locust is a valuable and beautiful tree. It is valuable at all times on account of the superior wood which it furnishes, and beautiful when in bloom and in leaf. A locust in full flower is not surpassed in ornamental qualities by any tree of this country. It is a mass of white, exceedingly rich in perfume. It blooms in May or June. During the summer its foliage shows tropical luxuriance with exquisite grace. Its compound leaves are from eight to fourteen inches long, with seven to nine leaflets. They come late in spring and go early in autumn. The tree’s thorns, resembling cat claws, are affixed to the bark only, and usually fall with the leaves. The fruit is a pod three or four inches long, and contains four or eight wingless seeds. They depend on animals to carry them to planting places. The pods dry on the branches, and rattle in the wind most of the autumn. The tree spreads by underground roots which send up sprouts. A locust in winter is not a thing of beauty. It appears to be dead; not a bud visible. Its black, angular branches lack every line of grace.Locust wood is remarkable for strength, hardness, and durability. It is about one pound per cubic foot lighter than white oak, but is thirty-four per cent stiffer and forty-five per cent stronger. Its strength exceeds that of shagbark hickory, and it is doubtful whether a strongerwood exists in the United States. Its hardness is equally remarkable, and is said to be due to crystals formed in the wood cells, and known as “rhaphides.” Its durability is probably equal to that of Osage orange, mesquite, and catalpa, but it is not easy to fix a standard of durability by which to compare different woods. Locust is the best fence post wood in this country, because it is usually much straighter than other very durable woods. The posts are expected to last at least thirty years, and have been known to stand twice that long.For more than 150 years locust was almost indispensable in shipbuilding, furnishing the tree nails or large pins which held the timbers together. It supplied material for other parts of ships also, but in smaller quantities. The substitution of steel ships for wooden lessened demand for locust pins, and in many instances large iron nails are used to fasten timbers together. In spite of this, the demand for locust tree nails is nearly always ahead of supply.The wood’s figure is fairly strong, due to the contrast between the springwood and that grown later, but not to the medullary rays, which are small and inconspicuous. The wood is not in much demand for ornamental purposes. Small amounts are made into policemen’s clubs, rake teeth, hubs for buggy wheels, ladder rungs, and tool handles.The tree grows rapidly where conditions are favorable, and very slowly when they are not. Usually trees of fence post size are twenty years old at least, but trunks thirty five years old have been known to produce a post for each two years of age, though that was exceptional. Railroads, especially in Pennsylvania, planted locust largely a few years ago for ties. It has been reported that in some instances expectations of growth have not been fully realized.Clammy Locust(Robinia viscosa) was originally confined to the mountains of North Carolina and South Carolina where its attractive flowers brought it to the notice of nurserymen who have enlarged its natural range a hundred if not a thousand fold. It is now grown in parks and gardens not only in the United States east of the Mississippi river and as far north as Massachusetts, but in most foreign countries that have temperate climates. It is usually a shrub, but on some of the North Carolina mountains it attains a height of forty feet and a diameter of twelve inches. The wood is seldom or never used for any commercial purpose. The leaves are from seven to twelve inches long, and contain thirteen to twenty-one leaflets. The flowers appear in June, possess little odor, and are admired solely for their beauty. They are mingled red and rose color. The pods are from two to three and a half inches long, and contain small, mottled seeds. The wood is hard and heavy, the heart brown and the sap yellow. In its wild haunts it is usually a shrub five or six feet high.New Mexican Locust(Robinia neo-mexicana) is a small southwestern tree, seldom exceeding a height of twenty-five feet or a diameter of eight inches. It ranges from Colorado to Arizona, and takes its name from its presence in New Mexico. It reaches its largest size near Trinidad, Colorado. It is found at elevations of 7,000 feet. Leaves are from six to twelve inches long, and the leaflets number from fifteento twenty-one. The flowers appear in May and are less showy than those of the eastern locust. The wood is heavy, exceedingly hard, the heartwood yellow, streaked with brown, the thin sapwood light yellow. This locust is occasionally used locally for small posts or stakes, but is generally too small. It is sometimes met with in cultivation in Europe and the eastern states.Texan Ebony(Zygia flexicaulis) ranges from the Texas coast through Mexico to Lower California. It reaches a height of thirty feet or more, and a diameter of two or less. It is a beautiful tree along the lower Rio Grande where it reaches its largest size. The light yellow or cream-colored, very fragrant flowers bloom from June till August; the fruit ripens in Autumn but adheres several months to the branches. Mexicans roast the seeds as a substitute for coffee. The color of the heartwood gives this tree its name, but it is not a true ebony. The wood of the roots is blacker than that of the trunk, and small articles made of roots resemble black ebony of Ceylon. The trunk wood is liable to be streaked with black, brown, and medium yellow. The rings of annual growth are frequently of different colors. Considerable demand is made upon this wood in Texas for crossties. It is very durable, but is so hard that holes must be bored for the spikes. It is sold in large amounts as cordwood, and it burns well. Other articles made of this so-called ebony are foundation blocks for buildings and rollers for moving houses. It is used also for small turnery.Huajillo(Zygia brevifolia) has no English name, but Americans in the Rio Grande valley where this tree grows call it by its Mexican name. It is a larger tree in Mexico than on this side of the river. It is not often more than thirty feet high and six inches in diameter, and is generally a shrub. Its beautiful foliage looks like masses of ferns, and the flowers range from white to violet-yellow. The wood is dark, hard, heavy, and is seldom used for anything but fuel.Florida Cat’s Claw(Zygia unguis-cati), with a Latin name that would make Julius Caesar stare and gasp, reaches its largest size in the United States on Elliott’s Key, Florida. Its name refers to its curved thorns. Trunks twenty-five feet high and eight inches in diameter are the largest in this country. It bears pods, but the leaves are not compound, thus differing from most trees of the pea family. The wood is not put to any use, though it is very hard and heavy, rich red, varying to purple, with clear yellow sapwood. It is said to check badly in drying. The bark is used for medicine in some of the islands of the West Indies.Locust branch

Locust belongs to the pea family, known in botany asLeguminosæ.[6]In most parts of its range it is known simply as locust, but in some localities it is called black locust, an allusion to the color of the bark; yellow locust, descriptive of the heartwood; white locust, referring to the bloom; red locust, probably a reference to the wood, and green locust for the same reason; acacia and false acacia; honey locust, a name which belongs to another species; post locust, because it has always been a favorite tree for fence posts; and pea-flower locust, a reference to the bloom.

[6]This is a very large family, containing trees, shrubs, and vines, such as locusts, acacias, beans, and clovers. There are 430 genera in the world, and many times that many species. The United States has seventeen genera and thirty species of the pea family that are large enough to be classed as trees. Their common names follow: Florida Cat’s Claw, Huajillo, Texan Ebony, Wild Tamarind, Huisache, Texas Cat’s Claw, Devil’s Claw, Leucæna, Chalky Leucæna, Screwbean, Mesquite, Redbud, Texas Redbud, Honey Locust, Water Locust, Coffeetree, Horsebean, Small-leaf Horsebean, Greenbark Acacia, Palo Verde, Frijolito, Sophora, Yellow-wood, Eysenhardtia, Indigo Thorn, Locust, New Mexican Locust, Clammy Locust, Sonora Ironwood, Jamaica Dogwood. These species are treated separately in the following pages, and are given space according to their relative commercial importance in the particular regions where they grow.

Several of the names refer to the color of the wood, and seem contradictory, for yellow, green, and red are not the same; yet the names describe with fair accuracy. Color of the heartwood varies with different trees, yellow with some, tinged with red with others, and sometimes it might be appropriately called blue locust, for the heartwood is nearer that color than any other.

The natural range of locust seems to have been confined to the Appalachian mountain ranges from Pennsylvania to Georgia. It probably existed as a low shrub in parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Its range has been extended by planting until it now reaches practically all the states, but is running wild in only about half of them. It has received a great deal of attention from foresters and tree planters. It attracted notice very early, because of its hardness, strength, and lasting properties. At one time the planting of locust came nearly being a fad. In England it was supposed that it would rise to great importance in shipbuilding, and in France it was looked upon as no less important. Books were written on the subject in both English and French. All the details of planting and utilization were discussed. Its generic name,Robinia, is in honor of a Frenchman, Robin. Extravagant claimswere once made for the wood. When American ships were gaining victory after victory over English vessels in the war of 1812, it was asserted in England that the cause of American success was the locust timber in their ships. The claim may have been partly true, but other factors contributed to the phenomenal series of successes.

The locust craze died a natural death. Too much was claimed for the wood. Possibilities in the way of growth were over estimated. It was assumed that the tree, if planted, would grow everywhere as vigorously as on its native mountains in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, where trees two or three feet in diameter and eighty feet high were found. Experience proved later that nature had planted the locust in the best place for it, and when transplanted elsewhere it was apt to fall short of expectations. Outside of its natural range it grows vigorously for a time, and occasionally reaches large size; but in recent years the locust borer has defeated the efforts of man to extend the range of this species and make it profitable in regions distant from its native home. The tree is often devoured piecemeal, branches and twigs breaking and falling, and trunks gradually disappearing beneath the attacks of the hungry borers. No effective method of combating the pest is known. The planting of locust trees, once so common, has now nearly ceased.

Within its native range, and beyond that range when it has a chance, locust is a valuable and beautiful tree. It is valuable at all times on account of the superior wood which it furnishes, and beautiful when in bloom and in leaf. A locust in full flower is not surpassed in ornamental qualities by any tree of this country. It is a mass of white, exceedingly rich in perfume. It blooms in May or June. During the summer its foliage shows tropical luxuriance with exquisite grace. Its compound leaves are from eight to fourteen inches long, with seven to nine leaflets. They come late in spring and go early in autumn. The tree’s thorns, resembling cat claws, are affixed to the bark only, and usually fall with the leaves. The fruit is a pod three or four inches long, and contains four or eight wingless seeds. They depend on animals to carry them to planting places. The pods dry on the branches, and rattle in the wind most of the autumn. The tree spreads by underground roots which send up sprouts. A locust in winter is not a thing of beauty. It appears to be dead; not a bud visible. Its black, angular branches lack every line of grace.

Locust wood is remarkable for strength, hardness, and durability. It is about one pound per cubic foot lighter than white oak, but is thirty-four per cent stiffer and forty-five per cent stronger. Its strength exceeds that of shagbark hickory, and it is doubtful whether a strongerwood exists in the United States. Its hardness is equally remarkable, and is said to be due to crystals formed in the wood cells, and known as “rhaphides.” Its durability is probably equal to that of Osage orange, mesquite, and catalpa, but it is not easy to fix a standard of durability by which to compare different woods. Locust is the best fence post wood in this country, because it is usually much straighter than other very durable woods. The posts are expected to last at least thirty years, and have been known to stand twice that long.

For more than 150 years locust was almost indispensable in shipbuilding, furnishing the tree nails or large pins which held the timbers together. It supplied material for other parts of ships also, but in smaller quantities. The substitution of steel ships for wooden lessened demand for locust pins, and in many instances large iron nails are used to fasten timbers together. In spite of this, the demand for locust tree nails is nearly always ahead of supply.

The wood’s figure is fairly strong, due to the contrast between the springwood and that grown later, but not to the medullary rays, which are small and inconspicuous. The wood is not in much demand for ornamental purposes. Small amounts are made into policemen’s clubs, rake teeth, hubs for buggy wheels, ladder rungs, and tool handles.

The tree grows rapidly where conditions are favorable, and very slowly when they are not. Usually trees of fence post size are twenty years old at least, but trunks thirty five years old have been known to produce a post for each two years of age, though that was exceptional. Railroads, especially in Pennsylvania, planted locust largely a few years ago for ties. It has been reported that in some instances expectations of growth have not been fully realized.

Clammy Locust(Robinia viscosa) was originally confined to the mountains of North Carolina and South Carolina where its attractive flowers brought it to the notice of nurserymen who have enlarged its natural range a hundred if not a thousand fold. It is now grown in parks and gardens not only in the United States east of the Mississippi river and as far north as Massachusetts, but in most foreign countries that have temperate climates. It is usually a shrub, but on some of the North Carolina mountains it attains a height of forty feet and a diameter of twelve inches. The wood is seldom or never used for any commercial purpose. The leaves are from seven to twelve inches long, and contain thirteen to twenty-one leaflets. The flowers appear in June, possess little odor, and are admired solely for their beauty. They are mingled red and rose color. The pods are from two to three and a half inches long, and contain small, mottled seeds. The wood is hard and heavy, the heart brown and the sap yellow. In its wild haunts it is usually a shrub five or six feet high.New Mexican Locust(Robinia neo-mexicana) is a small southwestern tree, seldom exceeding a height of twenty-five feet or a diameter of eight inches. It ranges from Colorado to Arizona, and takes its name from its presence in New Mexico. It reaches its largest size near Trinidad, Colorado. It is found at elevations of 7,000 feet. Leaves are from six to twelve inches long, and the leaflets number from fifteento twenty-one. The flowers appear in May and are less showy than those of the eastern locust. The wood is heavy, exceedingly hard, the heartwood yellow, streaked with brown, the thin sapwood light yellow. This locust is occasionally used locally for small posts or stakes, but is generally too small. It is sometimes met with in cultivation in Europe and the eastern states.Texan Ebony(Zygia flexicaulis) ranges from the Texas coast through Mexico to Lower California. It reaches a height of thirty feet or more, and a diameter of two or less. It is a beautiful tree along the lower Rio Grande where it reaches its largest size. The light yellow or cream-colored, very fragrant flowers bloom from June till August; the fruit ripens in Autumn but adheres several months to the branches. Mexicans roast the seeds as a substitute for coffee. The color of the heartwood gives this tree its name, but it is not a true ebony. The wood of the roots is blacker than that of the trunk, and small articles made of roots resemble black ebony of Ceylon. The trunk wood is liable to be streaked with black, brown, and medium yellow. The rings of annual growth are frequently of different colors. Considerable demand is made upon this wood in Texas for crossties. It is very durable, but is so hard that holes must be bored for the spikes. It is sold in large amounts as cordwood, and it burns well. Other articles made of this so-called ebony are foundation blocks for buildings and rollers for moving houses. It is used also for small turnery.Huajillo(Zygia brevifolia) has no English name, but Americans in the Rio Grande valley where this tree grows call it by its Mexican name. It is a larger tree in Mexico than on this side of the river. It is not often more than thirty feet high and six inches in diameter, and is generally a shrub. Its beautiful foliage looks like masses of ferns, and the flowers range from white to violet-yellow. The wood is dark, hard, heavy, and is seldom used for anything but fuel.Florida Cat’s Claw(Zygia unguis-cati), with a Latin name that would make Julius Caesar stare and gasp, reaches its largest size in the United States on Elliott’s Key, Florida. Its name refers to its curved thorns. Trunks twenty-five feet high and eight inches in diameter are the largest in this country. It bears pods, but the leaves are not compound, thus differing from most trees of the pea family. The wood is not put to any use, though it is very hard and heavy, rich red, varying to purple, with clear yellow sapwood. It is said to check badly in drying. The bark is used for medicine in some of the islands of the West Indies.

New Mexican Locust(Robinia neo-mexicana) is a small southwestern tree, seldom exceeding a height of twenty-five feet or a diameter of eight inches. It ranges from Colorado to Arizona, and takes its name from its presence in New Mexico. It reaches its largest size near Trinidad, Colorado. It is found at elevations of 7,000 feet. Leaves are from six to twelve inches long, and the leaflets number from fifteento twenty-one. The flowers appear in May and are less showy than those of the eastern locust. The wood is heavy, exceedingly hard, the heartwood yellow, streaked with brown, the thin sapwood light yellow. This locust is occasionally used locally for small posts or stakes, but is generally too small. It is sometimes met with in cultivation in Europe and the eastern states.

Texan Ebony(Zygia flexicaulis) ranges from the Texas coast through Mexico to Lower California. It reaches a height of thirty feet or more, and a diameter of two or less. It is a beautiful tree along the lower Rio Grande where it reaches its largest size. The light yellow or cream-colored, very fragrant flowers bloom from June till August; the fruit ripens in Autumn but adheres several months to the branches. Mexicans roast the seeds as a substitute for coffee. The color of the heartwood gives this tree its name, but it is not a true ebony. The wood of the roots is blacker than that of the trunk, and small articles made of roots resemble black ebony of Ceylon. The trunk wood is liable to be streaked with black, brown, and medium yellow. The rings of annual growth are frequently of different colors. Considerable demand is made upon this wood in Texas for crossties. It is very durable, but is so hard that holes must be bored for the spikes. It is sold in large amounts as cordwood, and it burns well. Other articles made of this so-called ebony are foundation blocks for buildings and rollers for moving houses. It is used also for small turnery.

Huajillo(Zygia brevifolia) has no English name, but Americans in the Rio Grande valley where this tree grows call it by its Mexican name. It is a larger tree in Mexico than on this side of the river. It is not often more than thirty feet high and six inches in diameter, and is generally a shrub. Its beautiful foliage looks like masses of ferns, and the flowers range from white to violet-yellow. The wood is dark, hard, heavy, and is seldom used for anything but fuel.

Florida Cat’s Claw(Zygia unguis-cati), with a Latin name that would make Julius Caesar stare and gasp, reaches its largest size in the United States on Elliott’s Key, Florida. Its name refers to its curved thorns. Trunks twenty-five feet high and eight inches in diameter are the largest in this country. It bears pods, but the leaves are not compound, thus differing from most trees of the pea family. The wood is not put to any use, though it is very hard and heavy, rich red, varying to purple, with clear yellow sapwood. It is said to check badly in drying. The bark is used for medicine in some of the islands of the West Indies.

Locust branch

HONEY LOCUSTHoney locustHoney Locust

Honey locustHoney Locust

Honey Locust

HONEY LOCUST(Gleditsia Triacanthos)This tree has never suffered for want of names, but most of them refer either to the sweetness of the pod or to the fierceness of the thorns. The belief has long prevailed that it was the pods of this tree on which John the Baptist fed while a recluse in the Syrian desert. The tradition should not be taken seriously. It was certainly not this tree, if any, which furnished food to the prophet in the wilderness, for it does not grow in Syria. Some related species may grow there, for species ofGleditsiaoccur in western Asia as well as in China, Japan, and west Africa. The generic name is in honor of Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch, a German botanist who died in 1786.The name honey locust refers to the pod, not the flowers. The latter are greenish, inconspicuous, and though eagerly sought by bees, they offer no particular attractions to people. Few persons ever notice them.In some of the southwestern states the tree is called black locust, though for what reason it is not apparent. Sweet locust, by which name it is known in several states, has reference to the pods, as do the names honey, and honey-shucks locust, applied in different localities. Many persons in naming the tree have thorns in mind. It is known as three-thorned acacia, thorn locust, thorn tree, thorny locust, and thorny acacia. The botanist who named it considered thorns a characteristic, forTriacanthosmeans “three-thorned.”No one who has ever had dealings with the thorns, will fail to duly consider them. They are about the most ferocious product of American forests. The tree’s trunk and largest branches bristle with them, standing out like porcupine quills, and sharper than any needle devised by human ingenuity. Microscopists use them for picking up and handling minute objects, their points being smooth and delicate though their shafts may be strong and rough. Thorns are arrested branches, coming from deep down in the wood. No more can one of them be pulled out than a limb can be extracted by the roots. They come from the center of the tree or limb. Some put out leaves and become true branches, but others sharpen their points, assume an attitude of hostility, and remain thorns to the end of their lives. Some of them are a foot long, and are so strong that birds flying against them are impaled and meet cruel death. A well-armed trunk is proof against the agility and skill of the squirrel. He cannot negotiate the thorns, and probably he tries only once. The hot pursuit of a dog will not compel him toattempt it. All trees, however, are not formidably thorned; some have few, and certain varieties have none.The honey locust is sometimes called the Confederate pin tree in the South. This is a reference to the Civil war, and the use occasionally made of the thorns by soldiers in mending the rents in their torn uniforms. The thorns were once put to a somewhat similar use among the Alleghany mountains where local factories for carding and spinning country wool employed them to pin up the mouths of wool sacks.The natural range of honey locust has been greatly extended by man. It was not originally found east of the Alleghany mountains. It grew from western Pennsylvania to northern Alabama and Mississippi, and westward to Nebraska and Texas. It is now naturalized east of the Alleghanies, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico. Planting for ornamental purposes and for hedges has been the cause of its extension into new territory. In spite of thorns, it is ornamental. Its foliage is thin, and its flowers inconspicuous, but the tree possesses a grace which wins it favor. It grows very rapidly, and in a short time a seedling becomes a respectable tree, and continues its rapid growth a long time. In southern Indiana and Illinois, which is the best part of its range, trees have attained a height of 140 feet and a diameter of six. The average size of forest-grown specimens is seventy-five feet in height, and two or more in diameter.The leaves are seven or eight inches long, doubly compound; the fruit a pod a foot or more in length, which assumes a twist when ripe, or sometimes warps several ways. The green pod contains a sweet substance often eaten by children, but it is believed to be of little value for human food. Cattle devour the pods when in the sugary condition; but they cannot often obtain them, because thorns intervene, when the pods would otherwise be in reach. In rural districts, a domestic beer is brewed from the young fruit. The juice extracted from it is permitted to ferment, but the beverage is probably never sold in the market.The pods are in no hurry to let go and fall, even after they are fully ripe. They become dry, distort themselves with a number of corkscrew twists, and hang until late fall or early winter, rattling in the wind and occasionally shaking out a seed or two.Honey locust has never been considered important from the lumberman’s standpoint. Sawlogs go to mills here and there, but never many in one place. The wood is not listed under its own name, but is put in with something else. Occasionally, it is said, it passes as sycamore in the furniture factory, though the difference ought not be difficult to detect. It doubtless depends to a considerable degree on the particular wood, for all honey locust does not look alike when convertedinto lumber. Some of that in the lower Mississippi valley might pass as sycamore if inspection is not too conscientiously carried out. The medullary rays, being darker than the body of the wood, suggest sycamore in quarter-sawed stock. Some of it goes into furniture, finish, balusters, newel posts, panels, and molding, particularly in eastern Texas. In Louisiana, where wood of similar texture and appearance might be expected, it is not looked on with favor, but is employed only in the cheapest, roughest work.The principal use of the wood is for posts and railroad ties. It lasts well, and is strong. Claims have been made that it is generally equal and in some ways superior to locust. It is difficult to see on what these claims are based. It is lighter, less elastic, and much weaker. Figures showing the comparative durability of the two woods are not available, but in like situations, locust would doubtless last much longer. As timber trees, the former may have the advantage over locust in being free from attacks of borers, attaining greater size, and thriving in a much larger area. It has been planted for ornament in other lands than this, and is now prospering in all the important countries of the temperate zone. One variety is thornless, and is known to botanists asGleditsia triacanthos lævis; another has short thorns.Water Locust(Gleditsia aquatica) looks so much like honey locust that the two are often supposed to be the same species in Louisiana; yet there are a number of differences. Water locust has fewer thorns and they are smaller, and often flat like a knife blade. The pods are entirely different from those of honey locust, being short and wide. The two species share the same range to some extent, but that of water locust is smaller, extending from South Carolina to Texas, Illinois, and Missouri; but the best of the species is west of the lower Mississippi where trees may reach a height of sixty feet and a diameter of two. The wood is heavy, hard, and strong, the heartwood rich bright brown, tinged with red, the sapwood yellow. The wood is much like that of honey locust, and when used at all is employed in the same way.Texas Locust(Gleditsia texana) is of no importance as a timber tree, and deserves mention only because its extremely restricted range gives it an interest. It exists, as far as known, in a single grove on the bottom lands of the Brazos river, near Brazoria, Texas, where some of the trees exceed 100 feet in height, and a diameter of two. The bark is smooth and thin, the leaves resemble those of honey locust, and the pods are about one-third as long.Huisache(Acacia farnesiana) is native along the Rio Grande in Texas, but it is running wild in Florida from planted trees. It is one of the most widely distributed species in the world, both by natural dispersal and by planting; and it is one of the handsomest members of the large group of acacias which includes more than 400 species. It bears delicate double-compound leaves, small and graceful. A tree in full leaf in its native wilds along the Rio Grande looks like a trembling fluffy mass of green silk. Nature formed the tree for ornament, not for timber. It attains a height of from twenty to forty feet, diameter eighteen inches or less. Trunk usually divides into several branches near the ground. Perhaps the only place in this country where the wood is used is in southern Texas where is it called “cassie,” ashortening of acacia. The wood so much resembles mesquite that locally they are considered the same. Huisache warps and checks in seasoning, but it is employed in a small way for furniture, usually as small table legs, spindles, knobs, and ornaments. It takes high polish, and resembles the best grades of black walnut, but is much heavier, harder, and stronger. It is next to impossible to drive a nail into it without first boring a hole. When used as crossties, holes must be bored for the spikes. The heartwood resists decay a long time, but the thin sapwood is liable to be riddled by small boring insects, which seldom or never enter the heartwood.Texas Cat’s Claw(Acacia wrightii) is a hardluck tree of western Texas where it is usually found on dry, gravelly hills and in stony ravines. Its twice-compound leaves are among the smallest of the acacias, seldom exceeding two inches in length. The fragrant, light yellow flowers appear from March to May, and the short pods ripen in midsummer, but like so many trees of the pea family, they are in no hurry to fall. The largest trees are thirty feet high and one in diameter, but most people associate cat’s claw with low, tangled brush, tough as wire, and armed with curved thorns so strong that their hold on clothing can hardly be broken. When a cat’s claw bush strikes out to become a tree—which is infrequent—it grows rapidly. It has been known to attain a diameter of nine inches in twenty-three years. The heart is dark in color and exceedingly hard. The color varies from nearly red to nearly black, and takes a polish almost like ivory. The thin yellow sapwood is preyed on by boring insects. Heartwood is made into canes, umbrella sticks, tool handles, rulers, and turned novelties.Devil’s Claw(Acacia greggii) has such paradoxical names as paradise flower, ramshorn, and cat’s claw. It deserves them all where it grows wild on the semi-deserts of the Southwest from Texas to California. The double-compound leaves are one or two inches long, its bright, creamy-yellow and exquisitely fragrant flowers are the glory of desert places, while its masses of thorns readily suggest the common name by which it is known. The wood is scarce, but extraordinarily fine. It is dark rich red, but clouded with streaks and patches of other shades, becoming at times gray, at others green. No nail can be driven into it, and an ordinary gimlet will hardly bore it. It is so saturated with oil that it is greasy to the touch. It is manufactured into small articles, but apparently is not used outside of the locality where it grows. The wood is often contorted, due to pits and cavities which slowly close as the tree advances in age. They add to rather than detract from the wood’s beauty.Honey locust branch

This tree has never suffered for want of names, but most of them refer either to the sweetness of the pod or to the fierceness of the thorns. The belief has long prevailed that it was the pods of this tree on which John the Baptist fed while a recluse in the Syrian desert. The tradition should not be taken seriously. It was certainly not this tree, if any, which furnished food to the prophet in the wilderness, for it does not grow in Syria. Some related species may grow there, for species ofGleditsiaoccur in western Asia as well as in China, Japan, and west Africa. The generic name is in honor of Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch, a German botanist who died in 1786.

The name honey locust refers to the pod, not the flowers. The latter are greenish, inconspicuous, and though eagerly sought by bees, they offer no particular attractions to people. Few persons ever notice them.

In some of the southwestern states the tree is called black locust, though for what reason it is not apparent. Sweet locust, by which name it is known in several states, has reference to the pods, as do the names honey, and honey-shucks locust, applied in different localities. Many persons in naming the tree have thorns in mind. It is known as three-thorned acacia, thorn locust, thorn tree, thorny locust, and thorny acacia. The botanist who named it considered thorns a characteristic, forTriacanthosmeans “three-thorned.”

No one who has ever had dealings with the thorns, will fail to duly consider them. They are about the most ferocious product of American forests. The tree’s trunk and largest branches bristle with them, standing out like porcupine quills, and sharper than any needle devised by human ingenuity. Microscopists use them for picking up and handling minute objects, their points being smooth and delicate though their shafts may be strong and rough. Thorns are arrested branches, coming from deep down in the wood. No more can one of them be pulled out than a limb can be extracted by the roots. They come from the center of the tree or limb. Some put out leaves and become true branches, but others sharpen their points, assume an attitude of hostility, and remain thorns to the end of their lives. Some of them are a foot long, and are so strong that birds flying against them are impaled and meet cruel death. A well-armed trunk is proof against the agility and skill of the squirrel. He cannot negotiate the thorns, and probably he tries only once. The hot pursuit of a dog will not compel him toattempt it. All trees, however, are not formidably thorned; some have few, and certain varieties have none.

The honey locust is sometimes called the Confederate pin tree in the South. This is a reference to the Civil war, and the use occasionally made of the thorns by soldiers in mending the rents in their torn uniforms. The thorns were once put to a somewhat similar use among the Alleghany mountains where local factories for carding and spinning country wool employed them to pin up the mouths of wool sacks.

The natural range of honey locust has been greatly extended by man. It was not originally found east of the Alleghany mountains. It grew from western Pennsylvania to northern Alabama and Mississippi, and westward to Nebraska and Texas. It is now naturalized east of the Alleghanies, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico. Planting for ornamental purposes and for hedges has been the cause of its extension into new territory. In spite of thorns, it is ornamental. Its foliage is thin, and its flowers inconspicuous, but the tree possesses a grace which wins it favor. It grows very rapidly, and in a short time a seedling becomes a respectable tree, and continues its rapid growth a long time. In southern Indiana and Illinois, which is the best part of its range, trees have attained a height of 140 feet and a diameter of six. The average size of forest-grown specimens is seventy-five feet in height, and two or more in diameter.

The leaves are seven or eight inches long, doubly compound; the fruit a pod a foot or more in length, which assumes a twist when ripe, or sometimes warps several ways. The green pod contains a sweet substance often eaten by children, but it is believed to be of little value for human food. Cattle devour the pods when in the sugary condition; but they cannot often obtain them, because thorns intervene, when the pods would otherwise be in reach. In rural districts, a domestic beer is brewed from the young fruit. The juice extracted from it is permitted to ferment, but the beverage is probably never sold in the market.

The pods are in no hurry to let go and fall, even after they are fully ripe. They become dry, distort themselves with a number of corkscrew twists, and hang until late fall or early winter, rattling in the wind and occasionally shaking out a seed or two.

Honey locust has never been considered important from the lumberman’s standpoint. Sawlogs go to mills here and there, but never many in one place. The wood is not listed under its own name, but is put in with something else. Occasionally, it is said, it passes as sycamore in the furniture factory, though the difference ought not be difficult to detect. It doubtless depends to a considerable degree on the particular wood, for all honey locust does not look alike when convertedinto lumber. Some of that in the lower Mississippi valley might pass as sycamore if inspection is not too conscientiously carried out. The medullary rays, being darker than the body of the wood, suggest sycamore in quarter-sawed stock. Some of it goes into furniture, finish, balusters, newel posts, panels, and molding, particularly in eastern Texas. In Louisiana, where wood of similar texture and appearance might be expected, it is not looked on with favor, but is employed only in the cheapest, roughest work.

The principal use of the wood is for posts and railroad ties. It lasts well, and is strong. Claims have been made that it is generally equal and in some ways superior to locust. It is difficult to see on what these claims are based. It is lighter, less elastic, and much weaker. Figures showing the comparative durability of the two woods are not available, but in like situations, locust would doubtless last much longer. As timber trees, the former may have the advantage over locust in being free from attacks of borers, attaining greater size, and thriving in a much larger area. It has been planted for ornament in other lands than this, and is now prospering in all the important countries of the temperate zone. One variety is thornless, and is known to botanists asGleditsia triacanthos lævis; another has short thorns.

Water Locust(Gleditsia aquatica) looks so much like honey locust that the two are often supposed to be the same species in Louisiana; yet there are a number of differences. Water locust has fewer thorns and they are smaller, and often flat like a knife blade. The pods are entirely different from those of honey locust, being short and wide. The two species share the same range to some extent, but that of water locust is smaller, extending from South Carolina to Texas, Illinois, and Missouri; but the best of the species is west of the lower Mississippi where trees may reach a height of sixty feet and a diameter of two. The wood is heavy, hard, and strong, the heartwood rich bright brown, tinged with red, the sapwood yellow. The wood is much like that of honey locust, and when used at all is employed in the same way.Texas Locust(Gleditsia texana) is of no importance as a timber tree, and deserves mention only because its extremely restricted range gives it an interest. It exists, as far as known, in a single grove on the bottom lands of the Brazos river, near Brazoria, Texas, where some of the trees exceed 100 feet in height, and a diameter of two. The bark is smooth and thin, the leaves resemble those of honey locust, and the pods are about one-third as long.Huisache(Acacia farnesiana) is native along the Rio Grande in Texas, but it is running wild in Florida from planted trees. It is one of the most widely distributed species in the world, both by natural dispersal and by planting; and it is one of the handsomest members of the large group of acacias which includes more than 400 species. It bears delicate double-compound leaves, small and graceful. A tree in full leaf in its native wilds along the Rio Grande looks like a trembling fluffy mass of green silk. Nature formed the tree for ornament, not for timber. It attains a height of from twenty to forty feet, diameter eighteen inches or less. Trunk usually divides into several branches near the ground. Perhaps the only place in this country where the wood is used is in southern Texas where is it called “cassie,” ashortening of acacia. The wood so much resembles mesquite that locally they are considered the same. Huisache warps and checks in seasoning, but it is employed in a small way for furniture, usually as small table legs, spindles, knobs, and ornaments. It takes high polish, and resembles the best grades of black walnut, but is much heavier, harder, and stronger. It is next to impossible to drive a nail into it without first boring a hole. When used as crossties, holes must be bored for the spikes. The heartwood resists decay a long time, but the thin sapwood is liable to be riddled by small boring insects, which seldom or never enter the heartwood.Texas Cat’s Claw(Acacia wrightii) is a hardluck tree of western Texas where it is usually found on dry, gravelly hills and in stony ravines. Its twice-compound leaves are among the smallest of the acacias, seldom exceeding two inches in length. The fragrant, light yellow flowers appear from March to May, and the short pods ripen in midsummer, but like so many trees of the pea family, they are in no hurry to fall. The largest trees are thirty feet high and one in diameter, but most people associate cat’s claw with low, tangled brush, tough as wire, and armed with curved thorns so strong that their hold on clothing can hardly be broken. When a cat’s claw bush strikes out to become a tree—which is infrequent—it grows rapidly. It has been known to attain a diameter of nine inches in twenty-three years. The heart is dark in color and exceedingly hard. The color varies from nearly red to nearly black, and takes a polish almost like ivory. The thin yellow sapwood is preyed on by boring insects. Heartwood is made into canes, umbrella sticks, tool handles, rulers, and turned novelties.Devil’s Claw(Acacia greggii) has such paradoxical names as paradise flower, ramshorn, and cat’s claw. It deserves them all where it grows wild on the semi-deserts of the Southwest from Texas to California. The double-compound leaves are one or two inches long, its bright, creamy-yellow and exquisitely fragrant flowers are the glory of desert places, while its masses of thorns readily suggest the common name by which it is known. The wood is scarce, but extraordinarily fine. It is dark rich red, but clouded with streaks and patches of other shades, becoming at times gray, at others green. No nail can be driven into it, and an ordinary gimlet will hardly bore it. It is so saturated with oil that it is greasy to the touch. It is manufactured into small articles, but apparently is not used outside of the locality where it grows. The wood is often contorted, due to pits and cavities which slowly close as the tree advances in age. They add to rather than detract from the wood’s beauty.

Texas Locust(Gleditsia texana) is of no importance as a timber tree, and deserves mention only because its extremely restricted range gives it an interest. It exists, as far as known, in a single grove on the bottom lands of the Brazos river, near Brazoria, Texas, where some of the trees exceed 100 feet in height, and a diameter of two. The bark is smooth and thin, the leaves resemble those of honey locust, and the pods are about one-third as long.

Huisache(Acacia farnesiana) is native along the Rio Grande in Texas, but it is running wild in Florida from planted trees. It is one of the most widely distributed species in the world, both by natural dispersal and by planting; and it is one of the handsomest members of the large group of acacias which includes more than 400 species. It bears delicate double-compound leaves, small and graceful. A tree in full leaf in its native wilds along the Rio Grande looks like a trembling fluffy mass of green silk. Nature formed the tree for ornament, not for timber. It attains a height of from twenty to forty feet, diameter eighteen inches or less. Trunk usually divides into several branches near the ground. Perhaps the only place in this country where the wood is used is in southern Texas where is it called “cassie,” ashortening of acacia. The wood so much resembles mesquite that locally they are considered the same. Huisache warps and checks in seasoning, but it is employed in a small way for furniture, usually as small table legs, spindles, knobs, and ornaments. It takes high polish, and resembles the best grades of black walnut, but is much heavier, harder, and stronger. It is next to impossible to drive a nail into it without first boring a hole. When used as crossties, holes must be bored for the spikes. The heartwood resists decay a long time, but the thin sapwood is liable to be riddled by small boring insects, which seldom or never enter the heartwood.

Texas Cat’s Claw(Acacia wrightii) is a hardluck tree of western Texas where it is usually found on dry, gravelly hills and in stony ravines. Its twice-compound leaves are among the smallest of the acacias, seldom exceeding two inches in length. The fragrant, light yellow flowers appear from March to May, and the short pods ripen in midsummer, but like so many trees of the pea family, they are in no hurry to fall. The largest trees are thirty feet high and one in diameter, but most people associate cat’s claw with low, tangled brush, tough as wire, and armed with curved thorns so strong that their hold on clothing can hardly be broken. When a cat’s claw bush strikes out to become a tree—which is infrequent—it grows rapidly. It has been known to attain a diameter of nine inches in twenty-three years. The heart is dark in color and exceedingly hard. The color varies from nearly red to nearly black, and takes a polish almost like ivory. The thin yellow sapwood is preyed on by boring insects. Heartwood is made into canes, umbrella sticks, tool handles, rulers, and turned novelties.

Devil’s Claw(Acacia greggii) has such paradoxical names as paradise flower, ramshorn, and cat’s claw. It deserves them all where it grows wild on the semi-deserts of the Southwest from Texas to California. The double-compound leaves are one or two inches long, its bright, creamy-yellow and exquisitely fragrant flowers are the glory of desert places, while its masses of thorns readily suggest the common name by which it is known. The wood is scarce, but extraordinarily fine. It is dark rich red, but clouded with streaks and patches of other shades, becoming at times gray, at others green. No nail can be driven into it, and an ordinary gimlet will hardly bore it. It is so saturated with oil that it is greasy to the touch. It is manufactured into small articles, but apparently is not used outside of the locality where it grows. The wood is often contorted, due to pits and cavities which slowly close as the tree advances in age. They add to rather than detract from the wood’s beauty.

Honey locust branch

COFFEE TREECoffee treeCoffee Tree

Coffee treeCoffee Tree

Coffee Tree

COFFEETREE(Gymnocladus Dioicus)This tree is scarce though its range covers several hundred thousand square miles, from New York to Minnesota, and from Tennessee to Oklahoma. It never occurs in thick stands, and usually the trees are widely scattered. Many districts of large size within the limits of its range appear to have none.The names coffeetree and Kentucky coffeetree refer to the custom of the pioneers, who settled the region south of the Ohio river, and who used the grotesque fruit as a substitute for coffee at a time when the genuine article could not be procured. The seed is a very hard bean that can be procured in abundance, where trees abound.The beans were softened by roasting or parching, and were then pounded into meal with hammers, and boiled for coffee. The beverage was black and bitter, and a little of it would go a long way with a modern coffee drinker. When the Kentuckians were able to procure coffee they let the wild substitute alone.The name was sometimes varied by calling it coffeenut or coffeenut tree, and sometimes it was known as coffeebean and coffeebean tree. It is less easy to explain why it was called mahogany in New York, and virgilia in Tennessee. Some knew it as the nicker tree, but the reason for the name is not known. Stump tree was another of its names. This was meant to be descriptive of the tree’s appearance after it had shed its leaves. It has remarkable foliage, double compound leaves two or three feet long, with four or five dozen leaflets. When leaves fall in autumn it looks as if the tree is shedding its twigs; and when all are down, the stripped and barren appearance of the branches suggests the name stump tree.The flowers are greenish-purple and are inconspicuous. In this respect they differ from many trees of the pea family which are noted for their attractive bloom. The fruit is among the largest of the tree pods of this country, ranging in length from six to ten inches and from one and a half to two in width. When fully grown they are heavy enough to make their presence felt if they drop on the heads of persons beneath. They are slow to fall, however, and it is not unusual for them to cling to the branches until late winter or early spring.The coffeetree has been known to attain a diameter of five feet and a height of more than a hundred, but the usual size is about half of that. It prefers rich bottom lands, and the trunks generally separate into several stems a few feet above the ground. Only one species existsin this country, and as far as known, only one other species elsewhere, and that grows in southern China where it is said the natives make soap of the pods. It is not known that any such utilization has been attempted in this country.The coffeetree’s range has been considerably extended by planting for ornament. In summer it is attractive, but from the first autumn frost until the leaves put out the following spring, it is uninteresting. The spring leaves are late, and the branches are bare more than half the year.The wood is heavy, strong, and durable in contact with the soil. The heart is rich light brown, tinged with red, the sapwood thin and lighter colored. Annual rings are distinct. The springwood is porous and wide, the summerwood dense. The medullary rays are inconspicuous and of no value in giving figure to the wood. When the annual rings are cut diagonally across they give figure like that of ash. The wood of the coffeetree has never been in much demand. Furniture makers may use it sometimes, but specific instances of such use do not exist in manufacturers’ reports. There are many places in furniture and finish which it might fill in a satisfactory manner.It is suitable for fence posts, and that is where it commonly gives service. It is occasionally employed as frame work in house and barn building, but is not sought for that purpose, and is used only when it happens to be at hand. Though the tree has the habit of branching, some of the trunks grow tall and shapely, and are good for two or three sawlogs or railcuts. An occasional tree serves as fuel. Medicine is sometimes made of a decoction of the fresh green pulp of unripe pods; and the leaves are reported to produce a fly poison if soaked in water.Redbud(Cercis canadensis) is also known as Judas tree, red Judas tree, Canadian Judas tree, and salad tree. The last name refers to a custom in some parts of its range of making salad of the flowers. It is the flower rather than the bud that is red and gives the tree its name, the bloom being conspicuous in early spring. The tree ranges from New Jersey to Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, but reaches its fullest development in southern Arkansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas where trunks fifty feet high and a foot in diameter are found. It is shrubby in many parts of its range. Leaves are not compound. The fruit is a pink or rose-colored pod two or three inches in length, and by some is considered nearly as ornamental though not as showy as the flowers. No one ever thinks of redbud as a timber tree or considers its wood, yet it might be used for a number of purposes. It is heavy and hard, but weak; and the heartwood is rich dark brown tinged with red. The tree is planted for ornament in this country and Europe.Texas Redbud(Cercis reniformis) differs somewhat from the common redbud, but it takes a botanist to point out the differences. The largest trees are forty feet high and a foot in diameter; the range extends from eastern Texas into Mexico; the wood closely resembles that of the other species, and is not known to be used for any purpose.California Redbud(Cercis occidentalis) is often classed as a shrub, but Sudworth gives it a place among the forest trees of the Pacific coast. The pea-shaped flowers are a clear magenta color. The pods turn purple when ripening but afterwards change to russet-brown. The wood is dark yellowish-brown, but because of the smallness of the trunks, it can never be important. The tree is found along the California mountains, six hundred miles north and south; is an abundant seeder, and is valuable as a protection to slopes and ravines, and as an ornament.Horsebean(Parkinsonia aculeata) is generally called retama in the valley of the lower Rio Grande in Texas where the species attains its largest size. Trees are occasionally thirty feet high and a foot or more in diameter. Trunks usually separate in several stems near the ground. The range extends from southern Texas to California, and the species is naturalized in south Florida, the West Indies, and many tropical countries. Leaves vary in form, and are occasionally eighteen inches long. Fruit consists of pods, each containing from two to eight beans. The yellow flowers are small and fragrant; the bark on young twigs is green, but on older trunks is brown. The brown, however, is easily rubbed off, exposing the green beneath, as may be seen in school grounds in some of the southern towns in Texas where this tree has been planted for ornament, and abrasions, due to children climbing about the spreading stems, keep the bark green. The upper branches are armed with thorns which discourage the climbing propensities of children. The wood is heavy, hard, tinged with yellow, and is made into small novelties, but is not of much importance.Small-leaf Horsebean(Parkinsonia microphylla) is well named, for the compound leaves, with four or six pairs of leaflets, are about an inch long, covered with hairs, and fall at the end of a few weeks. Consequently, the tree is bare most of the year, except for the pale yellow flowers which appear in spring before the leaves, and the clusters of striped pods, each containing from one to three beans. The pods are nearly always present, for they have the pea family habit of adhering to the branches a long time. Trees reach a height of fifteen or twenty feet, and a diameter of ten inches or less. The wood is very hard and dense, in color deep yellowish-brown, often mottled and streaked with dull red; the sapwood thick and yellow. The wood is suitable for small articles, but its scarcity renders it of little importance. It is found in thedeserts of southern Arizona and the adjacent parts of California, and is usually a small shrub.Jamaica Dogwood(Ichthyomethia piscipula) is the lone representative of the genus, and is found in this country only in southern Florida. It is not in the same family with the dogwoods, and its name is misleading. The Carib Indians formerly used the leaves to stupify fish and render them easier to catch; hence the botanical name. The leaves are compound, but bear little resemblance to the foliage of most members of the pea family to which this tree belongs. The flowers are the tree’s chief source of beauty, and are delicately clustered, hanging in bunches a foot long. The fruit is a pod three or four inches long, with four wings running the full length. The wings are useless for flying. Trees are forty or fifty feet high and two or three feet in diameter; are common in southern Florida and on the islands. The wood is of considerable importance in the region where it grows but figures little in general markets. It weighs 54.43 pounds per cubic foot, and is moderately strong and stiff. In color it is a clear yellow-brown, with thick, lighter colored sapwood. It is very durable in contact with the ground, and in Florida it is used for posts, and occasionally for railway ties. It has been commonly reported as a wood for boatbuilding in Florida, but its importance for that purpose has probably been overstated, since an investigation of the boatbuilding industry in Florida failed to find one foot of this wood in use, although some may be employed but not listed in reports.Coffee tree branch

This tree is scarce though its range covers several hundred thousand square miles, from New York to Minnesota, and from Tennessee to Oklahoma. It never occurs in thick stands, and usually the trees are widely scattered. Many districts of large size within the limits of its range appear to have none.

The names coffeetree and Kentucky coffeetree refer to the custom of the pioneers, who settled the region south of the Ohio river, and who used the grotesque fruit as a substitute for coffee at a time when the genuine article could not be procured. The seed is a very hard bean that can be procured in abundance, where trees abound.

The beans were softened by roasting or parching, and were then pounded into meal with hammers, and boiled for coffee. The beverage was black and bitter, and a little of it would go a long way with a modern coffee drinker. When the Kentuckians were able to procure coffee they let the wild substitute alone.

The name was sometimes varied by calling it coffeenut or coffeenut tree, and sometimes it was known as coffeebean and coffeebean tree. It is less easy to explain why it was called mahogany in New York, and virgilia in Tennessee. Some knew it as the nicker tree, but the reason for the name is not known. Stump tree was another of its names. This was meant to be descriptive of the tree’s appearance after it had shed its leaves. It has remarkable foliage, double compound leaves two or three feet long, with four or five dozen leaflets. When leaves fall in autumn it looks as if the tree is shedding its twigs; and when all are down, the stripped and barren appearance of the branches suggests the name stump tree.

The flowers are greenish-purple and are inconspicuous. In this respect they differ from many trees of the pea family which are noted for their attractive bloom. The fruit is among the largest of the tree pods of this country, ranging in length from six to ten inches and from one and a half to two in width. When fully grown they are heavy enough to make their presence felt if they drop on the heads of persons beneath. They are slow to fall, however, and it is not unusual for them to cling to the branches until late winter or early spring.

The coffeetree has been known to attain a diameter of five feet and a height of more than a hundred, but the usual size is about half of that. It prefers rich bottom lands, and the trunks generally separate into several stems a few feet above the ground. Only one species existsin this country, and as far as known, only one other species elsewhere, and that grows in southern China where it is said the natives make soap of the pods. It is not known that any such utilization has been attempted in this country.

The coffeetree’s range has been considerably extended by planting for ornament. In summer it is attractive, but from the first autumn frost until the leaves put out the following spring, it is uninteresting. The spring leaves are late, and the branches are bare more than half the year.

The wood is heavy, strong, and durable in contact with the soil. The heart is rich light brown, tinged with red, the sapwood thin and lighter colored. Annual rings are distinct. The springwood is porous and wide, the summerwood dense. The medullary rays are inconspicuous and of no value in giving figure to the wood. When the annual rings are cut diagonally across they give figure like that of ash. The wood of the coffeetree has never been in much demand. Furniture makers may use it sometimes, but specific instances of such use do not exist in manufacturers’ reports. There are many places in furniture and finish which it might fill in a satisfactory manner.

It is suitable for fence posts, and that is where it commonly gives service. It is occasionally employed as frame work in house and barn building, but is not sought for that purpose, and is used only when it happens to be at hand. Though the tree has the habit of branching, some of the trunks grow tall and shapely, and are good for two or three sawlogs or railcuts. An occasional tree serves as fuel. Medicine is sometimes made of a decoction of the fresh green pulp of unripe pods; and the leaves are reported to produce a fly poison if soaked in water.

Redbud(Cercis canadensis) is also known as Judas tree, red Judas tree, Canadian Judas tree, and salad tree. The last name refers to a custom in some parts of its range of making salad of the flowers. It is the flower rather than the bud that is red and gives the tree its name, the bloom being conspicuous in early spring. The tree ranges from New Jersey to Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, but reaches its fullest development in southern Arkansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas where trunks fifty feet high and a foot in diameter are found. It is shrubby in many parts of its range. Leaves are not compound. The fruit is a pink or rose-colored pod two or three inches in length, and by some is considered nearly as ornamental though not as showy as the flowers. No one ever thinks of redbud as a timber tree or considers its wood, yet it might be used for a number of purposes. It is heavy and hard, but weak; and the heartwood is rich dark brown tinged with red. The tree is planted for ornament in this country and Europe.

Texas Redbud(Cercis reniformis) differs somewhat from the common redbud, but it takes a botanist to point out the differences. The largest trees are forty feet high and a foot in diameter; the range extends from eastern Texas into Mexico; the wood closely resembles that of the other species, and is not known to be used for any purpose.

California Redbud(Cercis occidentalis) is often classed as a shrub, but Sudworth gives it a place among the forest trees of the Pacific coast. The pea-shaped flowers are a clear magenta color. The pods turn purple when ripening but afterwards change to russet-brown. The wood is dark yellowish-brown, but because of the smallness of the trunks, it can never be important. The tree is found along the California mountains, six hundred miles north and south; is an abundant seeder, and is valuable as a protection to slopes and ravines, and as an ornament.

Horsebean(Parkinsonia aculeata) is generally called retama in the valley of the lower Rio Grande in Texas where the species attains its largest size. Trees are occasionally thirty feet high and a foot or more in diameter. Trunks usually separate in several stems near the ground. The range extends from southern Texas to California, and the species is naturalized in south Florida, the West Indies, and many tropical countries. Leaves vary in form, and are occasionally eighteen inches long. Fruit consists of pods, each containing from two to eight beans. The yellow flowers are small and fragrant; the bark on young twigs is green, but on older trunks is brown. The brown, however, is easily rubbed off, exposing the green beneath, as may be seen in school grounds in some of the southern towns in Texas where this tree has been planted for ornament, and abrasions, due to children climbing about the spreading stems, keep the bark green. The upper branches are armed with thorns which discourage the climbing propensities of children. The wood is heavy, hard, tinged with yellow, and is made into small novelties, but is not of much importance.

Small-leaf Horsebean(Parkinsonia microphylla) is well named, for the compound leaves, with four or six pairs of leaflets, are about an inch long, covered with hairs, and fall at the end of a few weeks. Consequently, the tree is bare most of the year, except for the pale yellow flowers which appear in spring before the leaves, and the clusters of striped pods, each containing from one to three beans. The pods are nearly always present, for they have the pea family habit of adhering to the branches a long time. Trees reach a height of fifteen or twenty feet, and a diameter of ten inches or less. The wood is very hard and dense, in color deep yellowish-brown, often mottled and streaked with dull red; the sapwood thick and yellow. The wood is suitable for small articles, but its scarcity renders it of little importance. It is found in thedeserts of southern Arizona and the adjacent parts of California, and is usually a small shrub.

Jamaica Dogwood(Ichthyomethia piscipula) is the lone representative of the genus, and is found in this country only in southern Florida. It is not in the same family with the dogwoods, and its name is misleading. The Carib Indians formerly used the leaves to stupify fish and render them easier to catch; hence the botanical name. The leaves are compound, but bear little resemblance to the foliage of most members of the pea family to which this tree belongs. The flowers are the tree’s chief source of beauty, and are delicately clustered, hanging in bunches a foot long. The fruit is a pod three or four inches long, with four wings running the full length. The wings are useless for flying. Trees are forty or fifty feet high and two or three feet in diameter; are common in southern Florida and on the islands. The wood is of considerable importance in the region where it grows but figures little in general markets. It weighs 54.43 pounds per cubic foot, and is moderately strong and stiff. In color it is a clear yellow-brown, with thick, lighter colored sapwood. It is very durable in contact with the ground, and in Florida it is used for posts, and occasionally for railway ties. It has been commonly reported as a wood for boatbuilding in Florida, but its importance for that purpose has probably been overstated, since an investigation of the boatbuilding industry in Florida failed to find one foot of this wood in use, although some may be employed but not listed in reports.

Coffee tree branch

YELLOW-WOODYellow-wood treeYellow-wood

Yellow-wood treeYellow-wood

Yellow-wood

YELLOW-WOOD(Cladrastis Lutea)This wood’s color is evidently responsible for its names yellow ash, yellow locust, and yellow-wood in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Kentucky, but no reason is offered for the name gopherwood by which it is known in some parts of Tennessee. The botanical name is based on the brittleness of the twigs. It is the only species of the genus, and it is not known to grow anywhere, except by planting, outside of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina.It occurs in an area not much exceeding 60,000 square miles, and it is not abundant in that area. It prefers limestone ridges and slopes, and does best where the soil is fertile. It often overhangs the banks of mountain streams, and is most abundant and of largest size in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, where a few trees have reached a diameter of three or four feet and a height of fifty or sixty. A diameter of eighteen or twenty-four inches is a good average.The tree’s habit of dividing six or seven feet from the ground into two or more stems is responsible for the scarcity of trunks suitable for saw timber, even in localities where trees of large size are found. However, an occasional trunk develops a shapely form. It goes to sawmills so seldom that it is never mentioned in statistics of lumber cut or wood-utilization.Most people who are acquainted with this tree, know it as planted stock in parks and yards where it is a favorite on account of its flowers. The bloom may properly be described as rare from two viewpoints. The beauty of its large clusters of white flowers differs from those of all associated trees; and it seldom blooms. One year of plenty is generally followed by several lean years. Those who plant the tree understand this, and feel amply repaid for the long wait, when the flowering year arrives. The planted tree is often known as virgilia, that being the name under which nurseries sell it. Flowers appear about the middle of June, in clusters a foot or more in length. It is claimed, but with what correctness cannot at present be stated, that the odor of flowers of different trees varies greatly, being faint with some, and strong and luxurious with others.The leaves are compound, but have no resemblance to those of locust and the acacias. They are eight or twelve inches long, with five or seven leaflets. In autumn before falling they change to a clear yellow, but adhere to the branches until rather late in the season. The fruit, which consists of small pods hanging in clusters, is ripe in September.Yellow-wood is a little below white oak in strength and seven pounds per cubic foot under it in weight; is hard, compact, and susceptible of a beautiful polish. Rings of yearly growth are clearly marked by rows of open ducts, and contain many evenly-distributed smaller ducts. The wood is bright, clear yellow, changing to brown on exposure; sapwood nearly white. Trunks of largest size are generally hollow or otherwise defective.The uses of yellow-wood have been few. In the days when families in remote regions were under the necessity of manufacturing, growing, or otherwise producing nearly every commodity that entered into daily life, the settlers among the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee discovered that the wood of this tree, particularly the roots, yielded a clear, yellow dye. The process of manufacture was simple. The wood was reduced to chips with an ordinary ax, and the chips were boiled until the yellow coloring matter was extracted. The resulting liquor was the dye, and it gave the yellow stripe to many a piece of home-made cloth in the cabins of mountaineers.The women usually attended to the dye making and the manufacture of yarn and cloth; but the men found a way to utilize yellow-wood in producing an article once so common in Tennessee and Kentucky that no cabin was without it—the trusty rifle. The gunsmith, assisted by the blacksmith, made the barrel and the other metal parts, but the hunter generally was able to whittle out the wooden stock. Yellow-wood’s lightness, strength, and color suited the gun stock maker’s purpose, and he slowly hewed and whittled the article, fitted it to the barrel, adjusted it to his shoulder, and completed a weapon which never failed the owner in time of need.Frijolito(Sophora secundiflora) is found in Texas, New Mexico, and southward in Mexico. The name is Spanish and means “little bean.” A common name for it in English is coral bean. Sophora is said to be an Arabic word of uncertain meaning, except that it refers to some kind of a tree that bears pods. It is a species, therefore, which draws its names from four languages, while the name applied to it by Comanche Indians is translated “sleep-bush.” The bright scarlet seeds, as large as beans, but in shape like door-knobs, grow from one to eight in a pod, and contain a narcotic poison, “sophorin.” It is probable that Indians discovered that the beans, if eaten, produced sleep, hence the name. The tree is from twenty-five to thirty-five feet high, and from six to ten inches in diameter. The leaves are compound, and consist of seven or nine leaflets. The small, violet-blue flowers appear in early spring. They are not conspicuous, but their presence cannot escape the notice of a traveler in the dry, semi-barren canyons and on thebluffs where the tree holds its ground. Their odor calls attention to their presence. The perfume is powerful but pleasant, unless the contact is too close. The pods are from one to seven inches long, and hang on the boughs until late winter. It is not believed that birds or mammals distribute the seeds, as their poison renders them unfit for food. Running water appears to be the principal agent of distribution. The tree reaches its largest size in the vicinity of Metagorda bay, Texas. Among the dry western canyons it is usually a shrub. The small size of this tree stands in the way of extensive use of the wood. It burns well and its principal importance is as fuel. The weight is 61.34 pounds per cubic foot; it is hard, compact, susceptible of a beautiful polish; medullary rays are numerous and thin; color is orange, streaked with red, the sapwood brown or yellow. The wood is worked into a few small articles.Sophora(Sophora affinis) ranges through portions of Arkansas and Texas. It is popularly supposed to be a locust, and is called pink locust or beaded locust, the first name based on the color of the wood, the last on the appearance of the pod which looks like a short string of beads, sometimes three inches in length, but usually shorter. In early times the pioneers manufactured ink from the pods. It was a fairly serviceable article, but was never sold, each family making its own. This tree’s flowers appear in early spring with the leaves. Trunks reach a height of twenty feet and a diameter of eight or ten inches; but the habit of separating into several stems a few feet above the ground lessens the use of the wood, even as posts, for the stems are usually very crooked. The tree’s preferred habitat is on limestone bluffs, or along the borders of streams, or in depressions in the prairie where small groves often occur. The wood weighs fifty-three pounds per cubic foot, and is very hard and strong. The annual rings are clearly marked with bands of large, open pores; medullary rays are thin and inconspicuous; color of the heartwood light red, the sapwood yellow. The wood is not sawed into lumber, but is whittled into canes and tool handles.Greenbark Acacia(Cercidium floridum) is properly named. Its green bark makes up for its scarcity of leaves, and answers the purpose of foliage. The manufacture of the tree’s food goes on in the bark, because the leaves are too small to do the work. The foliage resembles that of locust and acacia in form, but the compound leaves are about an inch in length, and the leaflets are one-sixteenth of an inch long. Flowers are small, but the tree puts on three or four crops of them in a single summer. The pods are two inches long. The tree is found in the United States only in the south and west of Texas, where it is occasionally called palo verde. It attains a height of twenty feet and a diameterof ten inches when at its best. The wood is pale yellow tinged with green, and, because of small size, is of little importance.Palo Verde(Cercidium torreyanum) sheds its leaves and its pods so early in the season that its branches are bare most of the year. Trees are from fifteen to thirty feet high, and some are considerably more than a foot in diameter. Its range covers a portion of southern California, the lower part of the Gila valley in Arizona, and extends southward into Mexico. It is a typical tree of the desert, and its extreme poverty of foliage enables it to live in a dry, hot climate. It clings to the sides of desert gulches and canyons, ekes out a dreary life in depressions among desolate dunes and hills of sand and gravel, and spends its allotted period of years in solitude, growing either singly or in small groups where the full foliage at the best time of year is insufficient to offer much obstruction to the full glare of the sun from a cloudless sky. The small flowers have little beauty or sweetness, but what they have is wasted on the desert air. Wayfarers in the barren country use the wood for camp fires.Indigo Thorn(Dalea spinosa) receives its name from the color of its flowers which appear in June. The tree has few leaves and they fall in a short time. This appears to be a provision of nature to enable the tree to endure the heat and dryness of its desert home. Its range covers the lower Gila valley in Arizona, and extends into the Colorado desert in southern California. It is not abundant, and if it were, it is of a size so small that it is practically valueless for commercial purposes. Some trees are a foot in diameter and twenty feet high. The wood is light, soft, and of a rich chocolate-brown color. It is known also as indigo bush and dalea.Eysenhardtia(Eysenhardtia orthocarpa) is so little known that it has no English name. It grows from western Texas to southern Arizona, but reaches tree size only near the summit of Santa Catalina mountains in Arizona where it is twenty feet or less in height and seldom more than eight inches in diameter. It inhabits an arid region, and bears fruit sparingly, with usually a single seed in a pod. The wood is heavy and hard, light reddish-brown in color, with thin yellow sap. It is not of commercial importance and probably never will be.Yellow-wood branch

This wood’s color is evidently responsible for its names yellow ash, yellow locust, and yellow-wood in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Kentucky, but no reason is offered for the name gopherwood by which it is known in some parts of Tennessee. The botanical name is based on the brittleness of the twigs. It is the only species of the genus, and it is not known to grow anywhere, except by planting, outside of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina.

It occurs in an area not much exceeding 60,000 square miles, and it is not abundant in that area. It prefers limestone ridges and slopes, and does best where the soil is fertile. It often overhangs the banks of mountain streams, and is most abundant and of largest size in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, where a few trees have reached a diameter of three or four feet and a height of fifty or sixty. A diameter of eighteen or twenty-four inches is a good average.

The tree’s habit of dividing six or seven feet from the ground into two or more stems is responsible for the scarcity of trunks suitable for saw timber, even in localities where trees of large size are found. However, an occasional trunk develops a shapely form. It goes to sawmills so seldom that it is never mentioned in statistics of lumber cut or wood-utilization.

Most people who are acquainted with this tree, know it as planted stock in parks and yards where it is a favorite on account of its flowers. The bloom may properly be described as rare from two viewpoints. The beauty of its large clusters of white flowers differs from those of all associated trees; and it seldom blooms. One year of plenty is generally followed by several lean years. Those who plant the tree understand this, and feel amply repaid for the long wait, when the flowering year arrives. The planted tree is often known as virgilia, that being the name under which nurseries sell it. Flowers appear about the middle of June, in clusters a foot or more in length. It is claimed, but with what correctness cannot at present be stated, that the odor of flowers of different trees varies greatly, being faint with some, and strong and luxurious with others.

The leaves are compound, but have no resemblance to those of locust and the acacias. They are eight or twelve inches long, with five or seven leaflets. In autumn before falling they change to a clear yellow, but adhere to the branches until rather late in the season. The fruit, which consists of small pods hanging in clusters, is ripe in September.

Yellow-wood is a little below white oak in strength and seven pounds per cubic foot under it in weight; is hard, compact, and susceptible of a beautiful polish. Rings of yearly growth are clearly marked by rows of open ducts, and contain many evenly-distributed smaller ducts. The wood is bright, clear yellow, changing to brown on exposure; sapwood nearly white. Trunks of largest size are generally hollow or otherwise defective.

The uses of yellow-wood have been few. In the days when families in remote regions were under the necessity of manufacturing, growing, or otherwise producing nearly every commodity that entered into daily life, the settlers among the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee discovered that the wood of this tree, particularly the roots, yielded a clear, yellow dye. The process of manufacture was simple. The wood was reduced to chips with an ordinary ax, and the chips were boiled until the yellow coloring matter was extracted. The resulting liquor was the dye, and it gave the yellow stripe to many a piece of home-made cloth in the cabins of mountaineers.

The women usually attended to the dye making and the manufacture of yarn and cloth; but the men found a way to utilize yellow-wood in producing an article once so common in Tennessee and Kentucky that no cabin was without it—the trusty rifle. The gunsmith, assisted by the blacksmith, made the barrel and the other metal parts, but the hunter generally was able to whittle out the wooden stock. Yellow-wood’s lightness, strength, and color suited the gun stock maker’s purpose, and he slowly hewed and whittled the article, fitted it to the barrel, adjusted it to his shoulder, and completed a weapon which never failed the owner in time of need.

Frijolito(Sophora secundiflora) is found in Texas, New Mexico, and southward in Mexico. The name is Spanish and means “little bean.” A common name for it in English is coral bean. Sophora is said to be an Arabic word of uncertain meaning, except that it refers to some kind of a tree that bears pods. It is a species, therefore, which draws its names from four languages, while the name applied to it by Comanche Indians is translated “sleep-bush.” The bright scarlet seeds, as large as beans, but in shape like door-knobs, grow from one to eight in a pod, and contain a narcotic poison, “sophorin.” It is probable that Indians discovered that the beans, if eaten, produced sleep, hence the name. The tree is from twenty-five to thirty-five feet high, and from six to ten inches in diameter. The leaves are compound, and consist of seven or nine leaflets. The small, violet-blue flowers appear in early spring. They are not conspicuous, but their presence cannot escape the notice of a traveler in the dry, semi-barren canyons and on thebluffs where the tree holds its ground. Their odor calls attention to their presence. The perfume is powerful but pleasant, unless the contact is too close. The pods are from one to seven inches long, and hang on the boughs until late winter. It is not believed that birds or mammals distribute the seeds, as their poison renders them unfit for food. Running water appears to be the principal agent of distribution. The tree reaches its largest size in the vicinity of Metagorda bay, Texas. Among the dry western canyons it is usually a shrub. The small size of this tree stands in the way of extensive use of the wood. It burns well and its principal importance is as fuel. The weight is 61.34 pounds per cubic foot; it is hard, compact, susceptible of a beautiful polish; medullary rays are numerous and thin; color is orange, streaked with red, the sapwood brown or yellow. The wood is worked into a few small articles.

Sophora(Sophora affinis) ranges through portions of Arkansas and Texas. It is popularly supposed to be a locust, and is called pink locust or beaded locust, the first name based on the color of the wood, the last on the appearance of the pod which looks like a short string of beads, sometimes three inches in length, but usually shorter. In early times the pioneers manufactured ink from the pods. It was a fairly serviceable article, but was never sold, each family making its own. This tree’s flowers appear in early spring with the leaves. Trunks reach a height of twenty feet and a diameter of eight or ten inches; but the habit of separating into several stems a few feet above the ground lessens the use of the wood, even as posts, for the stems are usually very crooked. The tree’s preferred habitat is on limestone bluffs, or along the borders of streams, or in depressions in the prairie where small groves often occur. The wood weighs fifty-three pounds per cubic foot, and is very hard and strong. The annual rings are clearly marked with bands of large, open pores; medullary rays are thin and inconspicuous; color of the heartwood light red, the sapwood yellow. The wood is not sawed into lumber, but is whittled into canes and tool handles.

Greenbark Acacia(Cercidium floridum) is properly named. Its green bark makes up for its scarcity of leaves, and answers the purpose of foliage. The manufacture of the tree’s food goes on in the bark, because the leaves are too small to do the work. The foliage resembles that of locust and acacia in form, but the compound leaves are about an inch in length, and the leaflets are one-sixteenth of an inch long. Flowers are small, but the tree puts on three or four crops of them in a single summer. The pods are two inches long. The tree is found in the United States only in the south and west of Texas, where it is occasionally called palo verde. It attains a height of twenty feet and a diameterof ten inches when at its best. The wood is pale yellow tinged with green, and, because of small size, is of little importance.

Palo Verde(Cercidium torreyanum) sheds its leaves and its pods so early in the season that its branches are bare most of the year. Trees are from fifteen to thirty feet high, and some are considerably more than a foot in diameter. Its range covers a portion of southern California, the lower part of the Gila valley in Arizona, and extends southward into Mexico. It is a typical tree of the desert, and its extreme poverty of foliage enables it to live in a dry, hot climate. It clings to the sides of desert gulches and canyons, ekes out a dreary life in depressions among desolate dunes and hills of sand and gravel, and spends its allotted period of years in solitude, growing either singly or in small groups where the full foliage at the best time of year is insufficient to offer much obstruction to the full glare of the sun from a cloudless sky. The small flowers have little beauty or sweetness, but what they have is wasted on the desert air. Wayfarers in the barren country use the wood for camp fires.

Indigo Thorn(Dalea spinosa) receives its name from the color of its flowers which appear in June. The tree has few leaves and they fall in a short time. This appears to be a provision of nature to enable the tree to endure the heat and dryness of its desert home. Its range covers the lower Gila valley in Arizona, and extends into the Colorado desert in southern California. It is not abundant, and if it were, it is of a size so small that it is practically valueless for commercial purposes. Some trees are a foot in diameter and twenty feet high. The wood is light, soft, and of a rich chocolate-brown color. It is known also as indigo bush and dalea.Eysenhardtia(Eysenhardtia orthocarpa) is so little known that it has no English name. It grows from western Texas to southern Arizona, but reaches tree size only near the summit of Santa Catalina mountains in Arizona where it is twenty feet or less in height and seldom more than eight inches in diameter. It inhabits an arid region, and bears fruit sparingly, with usually a single seed in a pod. The wood is heavy and hard, light reddish-brown in color, with thin yellow sap. It is not of commercial importance and probably never will be.

Eysenhardtia(Eysenhardtia orthocarpa) is so little known that it has no English name. It grows from western Texas to southern Arizona, but reaches tree size only near the summit of Santa Catalina mountains in Arizona where it is twenty feet or less in height and seldom more than eight inches in diameter. It inhabits an arid region, and bears fruit sparingly, with usually a single seed in a pod. The wood is heavy and hard, light reddish-brown in color, with thin yellow sap. It is not of commercial importance and probably never will be.

Yellow-wood branch

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