MAY. 101 



their profusion of starry "white floM'ers cover the 

 stones of the rock work. 



The rose acacia (Eohinia hispida rosea) is 

 now profusely flov/ering, and its long blushing 

 wreaths of flowers droop from among its light 

 sprays of leaves, rendering \t a truly graceful 

 shrub. By persons unacquainted with flowers, 

 it is commonly called pink laburnum, as its 

 blossoms are formed like those of that tree. Its 

 roots require much room, so that it is an incon- 

 venient plant for a small plot, but no large 

 garden should be without its beauty. It is a 

 native of Carolina. 



Several other beautiful species of the plant 

 called acacia are to be found in the garden, 

 while the locust - ti'ce, or false acacia, {Bo- 

 binia pseudacacia,) is very general, and lends 

 its shadow to the lawn, or hangs its pendent 

 blossoms in the shrubbery. Some of the Jesuit 

 missionaries gave to this plant its name of locust- 

 tree, from the mistaken idea that its seeds were 

 alluded to in Scripture, where the forerunner 

 of the Messiah is described as eating locusts 

 and wild honey. Its flowers are generally 

 either white or tinged with pink and purple, 

 but it is one of those trees which remain the 

 longest in spring, waiting to be clothed with 

 the verdant foliage; and this, as well as the 

 very brittle nature of its branches, which snap 

 and break away in the high winds of spring, 

 is a great disadvantage to its beauty. With us 

 it is more connnonly a low than a very high 

 tree, but in the JMorth American woods its 



