[Illustration: EBONY BLACKBEAD (Leaf and fruit, two-thirds natural size)] The FLOWERS are light yellow or cream colored, fragrant, and bloom from June to August in dense cylindric or interrupted spikes 1½ inches long. The FRUIT ripens in the fall and remains on the branches until after the flowering season the following year. It is a flattened, curved, hairy pod, 4 to 6 inches long, and about 1 inch wide. The WOOD is very heavy, hard, close-grained, dark red-brown tinged with purple, almost indestructible when used for fence posts, and valued for cabinet work. The tree is considered the most valuable species in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Mexicans use the seed as a substitute for coffee. CATCLAW ACACIA (Una de Gato) Acacia greggii A. Gray Found on dry gravelly mesas, the sides of low canyons and the banks of mountain streams in the Rio Grande Valley and westward, this small tree rarely reaches a height of 30 feet, and has a trunk up to 12 inches in diameter. The top or head consists of numerous spreading branches and smooth pale brown or red branchlets, armed with stout curved spines. [Illustration: CATCLAW ACACIA (Fruit and leaves, one-half natural size)] The small, bipinnately compound LEAVES with 1 to 3 pinnae, the leaflets of which are about ¼ inch long. The fragrant yellow FLOWERS appear during the summer in dense, oblong, pubescent spikes, usually 2 to 3 in a cluster at the end of a branch. The FRUIT matures by midsummer into a twisted or distorted pod, 2 to 4 inches long by about ¾ inch wide. The pod is smaller between each of the 6 to 8 seeds, which are nearly round, flattened, dark brown and shiny. The pods hang unopened on the branches until the winter or the following spring. The WOOD is heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, durable, and clear brown or red in color. GREGG LEADTREE Leucaena greggii S. Wats. This small, beautiful tree grows wild in western Texas from the upper San Saba River to Devil’s River. It grows along the banks of streams and in moist ravines, and reaches a size of 15 to 20 feet in height and 4 to 5 inches in diameter. [Illustration: GREGG LEADTREE (Leaf and fruit, two-thirds natural size)] The LEAVES are finely and doubly compound; with 10 to 14 feather-like pinnae, each containing from 30 to 60 small leaflets, arranged along opposite sides of the rachis. Each leaflet is elliptical, grayish-green or bluish-green, smooth, and about ⅓ inch long. The white FLOWERS are clustered in dense round heads, about 1 inch in diameter, borne on a long peduncle. Each tiny flower has protruding hairs which give the head a fuzzy appearance. The pods, or FRUIT, are 6 to 8 inches long and about ½ inch wide, flat, and with narrow wing-like edges. The WOOD is heavy, hard, close-grained, clear brown streaked with red, with thin, clear sapwood.