The early-blooming trees and those of small size will ever be held in affectionate regard. Here is one of the most charming of them all—a dainty, low-headed tree skirting the woodlands in the North, often growing farther south in dense thickets, under the taller trees. It wakes with the shad-bush and the wild plum and covers its bare twigs with a profusion of pea-like rosy magenta blossoms in clusters that hug the branch closely, and continue to open until the leaves have unfolded.
The hardiness of the redbud commends it to planters in the Northeast, as well as in the warmer parts of its natural range. 1 t is widely cultivated as a flowering tree. After the flowers, the glossy, round leaves are beautiful, as are also the dainty, pale green pods, which in late summer take on their purple hue. The foliage, unmarred by the wear and tear of a season of growth, turns to bright yellow before it falls.
A further merit of the redbud tree is that it begins blooming when very young. It should be in every shrubbery border. Some people prefer the double-flowered form offered by nursery men. A variety, pubescens, called the downy redbud, grows wild from Georgia westward.
The Texas Redbud (Cercis Texensis, Sarg.) is commonly seen as a low shrub, forming thickets on the uplands of eastern Texas. Occasionally it reaches 4o feet in height. The leaves are leathery, but in the characters of flower and fruit the tree is much like its Northern relative.
The European redbud, which grows also in Asia Minor, is stigmatised by tradition as the tree on which Judas Iscariot hanged himself. Our little tree has had to share the name, and in many places it is the "Judas tree" to-day. It is a pity to keep alive a notion so ghastly. The most beautiful redbud is a Chinese species (C. Chinensis, Bunge), with very large and abundant pink flowers. Its leaves are bordered with a clear or white rim.
2. Genus GLEDITSIA, Linn.
The genus Gleditsia has ten species or more, three of which are native to the eastern half of the United States. Japan and China have three or four species between them; Asia Minor and northern Africa have representatives. The oriental species are cultivated by the Japanese and Chinese, and have been intro duced into European and American plantations. The wood is durable and strong. The trees are ornamental and easy to grow. In Japan the pulp of the green pods is used instead of soap.
Honey Locust, Acacia (Gleditsia triacan 'hos, Linn.)—A large, handsome tree, 70 to 140 feet high, with rigid, horizontal branches; trunk 3 to 5 feet in diameter. Bark
rough, dark, deeply furrowed; twigs brown, smooth. Thorns in second year, 3-pronged, single, or in close-set clusters. Wood reddish brown, heavy, durable, hard. Buds clustered, nearly hidden in winter; spine bud some distance above axillary buds. Leaves 7 to 8 inches long, alternate, once or twice pinnately com pound, soft, velvety, and pink when opening, changing to dark green with paler linings; yellow in autumn. Flowers inconspicu ous, regular, in small greenish racemes, staminate and pistillate racemes separate on the same or on different trees. Fruits purple, curving, flat pods, 6 to 18 inches long; seeds io to 15, hard, flat, brown. Preferred habitat, rich woods. Distribution, New York and Pennsylvania to Mississippi and Texas; Ontario to Michigan and Arkansas. Uses: Ornamental and shade tree much cultivated, Good hedge tree. Wood used for wheel hubs, fencing, and for fuel.
Unlike its relative, the yellow locust, this tree is strikingly handsome and full of character in winter. Its bark, from root to twig, is brown and "alive-looking," though no buds are in sight, and the bark furrows are deep on a large tree. 'There is all the difference in the world between a dead grey and a lively brown. The locusts well illustrate this difference.
The honey locust has angular branches, slender and wiry, which extend far out in horizontal planes. These branches shine as if they were polished. The three-pronged thorns give an added asperity to the demeanour of the tree. The rattling pods are purple and shiny. They curve and cluster on the top most limbs, and long defy the efforts of the wind to dislodge t hem.
The thorns of the honey locust are thorns indeed—modified branches that branch again, and are rooted in the very pith of the twig that bears them. The "thorns" of the yellow locust are prickles—merely skin deep. Occasionally a leaf appears on the side of a young thorn to strengthen the evidence that the thorn is a branch changed to a special form to serve a special use. But the thorns stop growing when they reach about a foot in length, and remain indefinitely in their places, ranging along the branches or clustered on the trunk, even encircling it in some instances with the most formidable chevaux-de-frise—a barrier to the ambitions of climbing boys, and to cropping cows which like the taste of locust foliage. There is a thornless variety which is the delight of boys who climb for the sweet pods in summer time.