Part 25

Gleditsia triacanthos]

A large tree with a smooth dark bark, cracking in thick lateral plates on old trees. Long, branching thorns growing in clusters out of the trunk and on the branches. Smooth, shining brown twigs and prominent U-shaped, alternate leaf-scars. There are no terminal buds, and the lateral ones are superposed, inconspicuous, rounded, and partly concealed in the stem. The fruit is a large, pea-like pod, often hanging on the trees through the winter.

Gleditsia triacanthos

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The honey locust is a beautiful tree with a large trunk and wide, loosely spreading branches. It is particularly interesting in winter on account of the apparent absence of buds along the stems. But for the rich brown color of the stems they might be thought dead until a cut with a knife in the stem over the leaf-scars shows the little tender buds tucked away out of sight. It is interesting, too, to find thorns which are long enough to have little thorns branching from them. A straight thorn seems formidable enough even on a rose stem, but a thorn some ten inches long with eight thorns branching from it, each varying from half an inch to two inches long, and this but one of a cluster of thorns, keeps the trunk of the honey locust sacred from climbing boys and from browsing cattle. The honey locust is more effective than a barbed wire for fencing. The fruit is in the form of a flat, crooked reddish brown pod from seven to eighteen inches long. These pods are often twisted, and are carried easily by the wind over the top of the snow, and young locusts are propagated in this way at a great distance from the parent tree. Beer has been made by fermenting the inner pulp of fresh pods, but it is more of an experiment than a customary practice.

The wood of the honey locust is hard, strong, and durable when it is placed in contact with the soil; it is used for posts and rails and for making the hubs of wheels.

The generic name, Gleditsia, was given to it in honor of Gleditsch, a German botanist; and the specific name, triacanthos (three-thorned), refers to the branching thorns.

The honey locust is not native in New England, although it is found growing commonly. Young trees spring up from the seeds of cultivated trees, and in this way it has spread and increased its range. It is found growing wild from Pennsylvania south and west. There are thornless varieties of this tree which are often cultivated.

Cladrastis lutea]

A small tree, 20 to 50 feet high, with a smooth dark gray bark. The stems are smooth and brown, with light colored conspicuous leaf-scars in a circle around the subpetiolar buds. The buds are brown and very hairy, each scale being covered with soft brown hairs. Pod-like fruit, about two inches long.

The clean, smooth bark of the yellowwood, its delicate branches and rich brown stems make this tree attractive in winter, in spite of the fact that, like the locust, its greatest beauty is in its sweet pendulous flowers and bright green leaves. The yellowwood is one of the few trees which have subpetiolar buds, and the prominent leaf-scars encircling the bud show that the base of the leafstalk covered it until the leaf fell off in the autumn.

Gymnocladus dioicus

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The wood is used for making gunstocks and for fuel, and it also yields a yellow dye, from which it takes its specific name, lutea,—yellow. The generic name, Cladrastis, comes from two Greek words meaning brittle branches, and was given to the tree on account of its fragile branches, which are easily broken by the wind. The yellowwood, or virgilia as it is sometimes called, is extensively cultivated in gardens and it is found growing wild in Kentucky and Tennessee. Professor Sargent says that it is one of the rarest and most local trees of North America.

Gymnocladus dioicus]

A large tree, 50 to 80 feet high, with rough bark. Large cane-like, smooth, gray shoots somewhat roughened by prominent lenticles. Large U-shaped, alternate leaf-scars with three or five bundle-scars. No terminal bud, the lateral buds are (two or three) superposed, they are inconspicuous, very silky to the touch, deep set and surrounded by an incurved rim of the bark. Large, wide, thick pods, 5 to 10 inches long.

The Kentucky coffee tree is entirely destitute of small spray, and in winter its thick, cane-like stems, without any perceptible buds, give it a singular appearance of rigid bluntness. A more striking contrast than the flat, fine sprayed branches of the hop hornbeam and the stout, upright stems of the Kentucky coffee tree could not be imagined. The early settlers in Kentucky made a drink from the seeds of this tree, which they considered equal to coffee, but later when communication with the seaport towns was established they gave up this drink for real coffee, and the seeds have never been used since for that purpose, although the tree has retained its name.

The wood is heavy, but not very strong. It is occasionally used in cabinet making and for posts and rails.

The generic name comes from two Greek words meaning naked branch, and has reference to the stout branches without spray; and the specific name comes from two Greek words meaning of two households, and refers to the male and female flowers which are found on separate trees. The Kentucky coffee tree is found growing wild from New York southward and westward, and it is occasionally cultivated in gardens and parks.

There are one or two other trees belonging to this family which are found planted in gardens. Of these the laburnum (Laburnum vulgare), a small tree 10 to 20 feet high, is perhaps the most familiar. It came originally from Switzerland, and has been cultivated in our gardens for its beautiful yellow flowers, “rich in streaming gold.” Another member of the family cultivated for its flowers and found wild from New York south and west is the redbud or Judas tree (Cercis canadensis). It is a small tree with no terminal buds, and with spreading, oval flower buds along the stems, which open before the leaf buds in the spring, and cover the branches with deep-pink flowers.

CHAPTER XI

THE LINDENS, THE LIQUIDAMBER, AND THE SASSAFRAS

Chapter XI

THE LINDENS, THE LIQUIDAMBER, AND THE SASSAFRAS

Families Tiliaceæ, Hamamelidaceæ, and Lauraceæ

The Tiliaceæ are a tropical family with a single genus, the linden, as a representative in our climate. There are two species found wild south of New York besides the common linden, the small leaved basswood and the white basswood, but the common linden and the European linden are the two trees found commonly in New England.

Tilia americana]

A tall tree, 60 to 80 feet high, frequently excurrent. The bark is rather smooth with shallow, close furrows, and the twigs are smooth, with a good deal of color. The leaf-scars are alternate, and the buds are smooth and red, the terminal one often being absent.