The Pod-bearers 



Unlike its relative, the yellow locust, this tree is strikingly 

 handsome and full of character in winter. Its bark, from root 

 to twig, is brown and "alive-looking," though no buds are in 

 sight, and the bark furrows are deep on a large tree. There is all 

 the difference in the world between a dead grey and a lively 

 brown. The locusts well illustrate this difference. 



The honey locust has angular branches, slender and wiry, 

 which extend far out in horizontal planes. These branches 

 shine as if they were polished. The three-pronged thorns give 

 an added asperity to the demeanour of the tree. The rattling 

 pods are purple and shiny. They curve and cluster on the top- 

 most limbs, and long defy the efforts of the wind to dislodge 

 them. 



The thorns of the honey locust are thorns indeed — modified 

 branches that branch again, and are rooted in the very pith of 

 the twig that bears them. The "thorns" of the yellow locust 

 are prickles — merely skin deep. Occasionally a leaf appears on 

 the side of a young thorn to strengthen the evidence that the 

 thorn is a branch changed to a special form to serve a special 

 use. But the thorns stop growing when they reach about a 

 foot in length, and remain indefinitely in their places, ranging 

 along the branches or clustered on the trunk, even encircling 

 it in some instances with the most formidable chevaux-de-frise — a 

 barrier to the ambitions of climbing boys, and to cropping cows 

 which like the taste of locust foliage. There is a thornless variety 

 which is the delight of boys who climb for the sweet pods in 

 summer time. 



The foliage mass of the honey locust is wonderfully light and 

 graceful. New leaves with a silvery sheen upon them are con- 

 stantly appearing; some once, some twice compound, on the 

 same tree. The colour of them is a clear, intense emerald. The 

 pods in midsummer show many shades of changeable red and 

 green velvet against the leaves, and are as beautiful in form as 

 in colour and texture. 



In this stage of growth the pods contain a sweet, edible 

 pulp which later dries and turns bitter. An Old-World tree 

 has pods that are thicker but otherwise resemble those of the 

 honey locust; these sweetish pods are sold on the streets of New 

 York as "St. John's Bread," and are believed to be the locusts 

 eaten by John the Baptist in the wilderness. 



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