HERE is a new kind of tree with which people in some parts of the United States will probably celebrate Arbor Day after a while. In Southern California, Arizona and some parts of Texas, and, generally speaking, in the southwestern portion of this country, are great tracts of land without a solitary tree. The government has at last found a tree which it is believed will grow and thrive in these warm, dry climates, and has imported seeds and settings with which to make experiments. It is called the lebbek tree and is a native of Egypt. It grows to a large size and has a thick foliage, with compound leaves like those of the honey locust. The bark makes good dye stuff and the wood is fair timber. One of the avenues leading to the great Pyramids is lined with these trees for a distance of four miles. They form a complete arch and the shade is so dense that no sun ever reaches the roadway beneath. In India these trees are called the Siris trees. They grow wild in the forest and their trunks attain a circumference of nine feet.

Their adaptability to the dry sections of the United States was discovered and reported upon by David G. Fairchild, one of the explorers for the agricultural department at Washington. The lebbek tree is a deep feeder and therefore is expected to thrive on the moist subsoil found at great depths even in the American desert.