PEA FAMILY 



leafless tree is not beautiful. The trunk is often twisted, 

 the branches are irregular and twiggy, easily broken, and so 

 give the tree an unkempt, ragged appearance. This is an 

 instance where the contour of the tree has nothing to do 

 with its beauty the beauty lies in the color and disposition 

 of the foliage itself. 



The young trees are armed with prickles, not thorns. 

 The difference between these lies in the point of attachment. 

 A prickle is part of the bark and will come off with it as do 

 the prickles of the rose, while a thorn is part of the woody 

 growth and belongs to the ligneous tissue. 



The Locust begins in its third year to convert its sapwood 

 into heartwood, which is not done by the oak, the beech, or 

 the elm, until after the tenth or fifteenth year. 



The leaflets fold together in wet weather, also at night ; 

 some change of position at night is the habit of the entire 

 leguminous family. This peculiarity of the tree led a child 

 to say, " It is not bed time, the locust tree has not begun its 

 prayer." 



The name Locust is said to have been given to our Robi- 

 nia by the Jesuit missionaries, who fancied that this was the 

 tree that supported St. John in the wilderness. But it is 

 native only to North America. The locust tree of Spain, 

 which is also a native of Syria, is supposed to be the true 

 locust of the New Testament ; the fruit of this tree may be 

 found in the shops under the name of St. John's bread. 



Robinia is now a North American genus but traces of it 

 are found in the eocene and miocene rocks of Europe. 



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