Part 44 (1/2)
The leaves are seven or eight inches long, doubly compound; the fruit a pod a foot or more in length, which a.s.sumes 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 pa.s.ses 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 pa.s.s 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, bal.u.s.ters, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 laevis_; 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 ma.s.s 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 ”ca.s.sie,” 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, k.n.o.bs, 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 a.s.sociate 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 ma.s.ses 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
COFFEE TREE
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 subst.i.tute 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 subst.i.tute 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.