LOCUST-TREE. -HYMENJM. 



In Botany, of the Class Decandria Monogynta. 

 Natural Order, Lomentacece. 



THIS is a very large spreading tree, in shape 

 resembling the beech. The flowers are 

 produced in loose spikes at the end of the 

 branches, and are succeeded by thick, fleshy, 

 brown pods, shaped like those of the garden- 

 bean, about six inches long, and two and a 

 half broad, wherein there are three or four 

 round, flat, blackish beans or stones, bigger 

 than those of the tamarind, enclosed in a 

 whitish substance of fine filaments, as sweet 

 as sugar or honey. The wild bees are fond 

 of building their nests in these trees : we may 

 therefore justly conclude that St. John found 

 both the locust and wild honey on the same 

 trees, and that it was this fruit on which he 

 fed, and not on insects, called locusts, as 

 some authors have stated. 



