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
fifteen to 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.
[Illustration]
HONEY LOCUST
[Illustration: 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 of
_Gleditsia_ occur 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, for _Triacanthos_ means “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 to attempt 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 converted into
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 as _Gleditsia 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,” a shortening 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.
[Illustration]
COFFEE TREE
[Illustration: 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 exists in
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 the deserts of southern Arizona and the adjacent parts of
California, and is usually a small shrub.