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MESQUITE, or HONEY LOCUST

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 188 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MESQUITE, or See also:HONEY See also:LOCUST , in See also:botany, a See also:tree, native of the See also:southern See also:United States and extending southwards through See also:Mexico and the Andean region to' See also:Chile and the See also:Argentine See also:Republic. It is known botanically as Prosopis juliflora, and belongs to the natural See also:order See also:Leguminosae (suborder Mimoseae). It reaches 40 or 50 ft. in height with a See also:trunk usually not more than 6 to 12 in. in See also:diameter, and divided a See also:short distance above the ground into numerous irregular' crooked branches forming a loose straggling See also:head. The remarkable development of its See also:main See also:root in relation to See also:water-See also:supply renders it most valuable as a drys-See also:country plant; the root descends to a See also:great See also:depth in See also:search of water, and does not See also:branch or decrease much in diameter till this is reached. It can thus flourish where'. no other woody plant can exist, and its presence and conditoli afford almost certain indications of the depth of the water-level. When the plant attains the See also:size of a tree, water, will be found within 40 or 50 ft. of the See also:surface; when it grows as a See also:bush, between 5o or 6o ft.; while, when the roots have to descend below 6o ft., the stems are only 2 or 3 ft. high. These woody roots supply valuable See also:fuel in regions where no See also:wood of fuel value is produced above ground." The leaves are See also:compound, the main See also:axis bearing two or sometimes four secondary axes on which are See also:borne a number of pairs of narrow bluntish leaflets. The See also:minute greenish-See also:white fragrant See also:flowers are densely crowdedon slender cylindrical spikes from ri to 4 in. See also:long; the long narrow pods are constricted between the seeds, of which they contain from ten to See also:thirty surrounded by a thick spongy layer of sweet pulp. The wood is heavy, hard and See also:close-grained, but not very strong; it is almost indestructible in contact with See also:soil, and is largely used for fence-posts and railway ties. The ripe pods supply the Mexicans and See also:Indians with a nutritious See also:food; and a See also:gum resembling gum arabic exudes from the See also:stem. An allied See also:species Prosopis pubescens, a small tree or tall See also:shrub, native . of the and regions of the See also:south-western United States, is known as the See also:screw-See also:bean or screw-pod mesquite from the fact that the pods are See also:twisted into a dense screw-like See also:spiral; they are used for See also:fodder and are sweet and nutritious, but smaller and less valuable than those of the mesquite. For a See also:fuller See also:account of these trees see See also:Charles Sprague See also:Sargent, See also:Silva of See also:North See also:America, iii. p.

99 (1892).

End of Article: MESQUITE, or HONEY LOCUST

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