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GAEDEN GUIDE EOF. DECEMBEE. 



The weather of the past month was so favourable for outfloor work that there 

 conld be no excuse for neglect of anything requiring to be done, so far at least as 

 the state of air and earth were concerned. The newspapers have teemed with para- 

 graphs prognostic of a severe winter, but the principal argument of the weather 

 prophets— that founded on the present abundance of berries— is so absurd that no 

 reflective person will give serious heed to them for a moment. But fir all that it is 

 our duty to be prepared for the worst, and whatever protection is likely to be needed 

 for choice plants, should be prenared at once. Very much m^y be done, as we have 

 frequently shown, by means of reed hurdles and screens of cheap net or coarse 

 canvas, to screen from the severest frost such things as Japanese shrubs, yuccas, and 

 other nearly hardy plants, the principal beauty of which consists in their foliage. 

 There is not much work going on now in any department, but winter flowers and 

 forced vegetables must have attention, and it would be well in the long evenings to 

 make out lists of seeds and roots that will soon be wanted, and order them, for 

 when the rush of the season occurs, seed orders are long delayed, and oftentimes the 

 best weather for sowing them is lost. This is not a good time to plant evergreens, 

 but deciduous trees of all kinds may be planted, and the sooner the better. Those 

 who are inquiring after cordon apple-trees may be referred to Messrs. Rollison and 

 Son, of Tooting, who have taken a leaf out of the French practice, and have a fine 

 stock of single and double cordons. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Locust Bean. — li. Tatham. — There are several trees of the Fabaceous, or bean- 

 producing, family of plants that are called " locusts." The one which produces the 

 large brown sweetish pods, employed here as cattle food, is named Ceratonia 

 siliqua, the horn-podded locust, or cnrob-tree. It grows plentifully throughout the 

 rocky districts of Arabia, Syria, Greece, Northern Africa, and the south coasts and 

 islands of the Mediterranean. It is evergreen, with dark, shining leaves ; the 

 flowers are red and yellow, they emit a powerful and obno.Kious perfume ; the 

 pods which follow them occur in clusters, and average four to six inches in length ; 

 they are intolerably astringent when green, but become peculiarly sweet and dry- 

 textured as they ripen, and when fit for use are of a fine dark brown colour. It is 

 eaten with avidity by all kinds of cattle : but in the East it is always xnix-?,d with 

 chopped clover and straw for horses and klne, for, if they eat much of ic alone, they 

 suff"er in health. It is only in times of scarcity that tlie carob bean is used as an 

 article of human food, except in tlie case of those who have acquired a taste for it, 

 and eat it as an amusement. When necessity compels its general adoption, it is 

 invariably baked, and forms a dish that is simply tolerated, rarely enjoyed, A very 

 excellent syrup is prepared from the ripe pods, which is administered in cases of 

 catarrh, and, in fact, in almost all afflictions of the ciiest, with grent benefit to the 

 patient. Tlie carob of commerce is commonly regarded as the " Locust " of St. 

 John in the wilderness. The natural habit of the tree favours tliis belief as much 

 as the suitability of its fruit for the sustenance of an anchorite. The " wilderness '* 

 is emphatically its home ; it is seldom seen in sheltered, fruitful valleys, but it 

 haunts the rocks and mountain sides, and sends its roots far and deep amongst the 

 clefts of the precipice in search of nutriment, wliete its dense, dark green head is 

 oftentimes the only example of verdure visible. It is one of the most interesting of all 

 the trees met with in the desert, because of its lonely habit, its hardy nature, its 

 rugged appearance, and its peculiar usefulness, as afi'ording food to man and beast. 

 In Matt. iii. 4 we read of John, that "his meat was locusts and wild honey" (of 

 the country). In the Greek text, the expression, " akrides kai mele agron," in 

 common with the Latin, *' locustaj et rael agreste," implies rather the animal than 

 the vegetable locust; the *• locu>tn " of Pliny and Livy being either one of the 

 grasshopper or one of the lobster tribe. We have not found in any great writer, 

 such as JJioscorides, for example, any allusion to the locust as a production of the 

 vegetable kingdom; and as the well-known animal bearing that name is much more 

 sought after in the East as an article of human diet than the bean of the carob, we 



