Trees, Shrubs and Vines 
titudinous, half-developed leaves bursting forth from a 
large honey-locust can only be compared to a fleecy 
emerald cloud enshrouding the massive black trunk and 
branches ; nothing in our vegetation rivals it, except 
the wondrous misty green of the tamarix in fall, the 
most strikingly beautiful shrub, as regards foliage, that 
the Park contains. 
In a tree of such temper one is surprised to find the 
trunk horrent with dense clusters of formidable spines, 
each spine a poignant condensation of an entire branch 
into a rigid needle, the spines themselves branching 
into other spines, and covering large portions of the 
trunk, in some cases, with their horrid masses—and for 
what earthly purpose? At least it is an interesting 
parable of good and evil mixed in the same nature. 
Having been so lavish in foliage-beauty, nature wisely 
withheld the crowning charm of handsome inflorescence, 
lest the honey-locust ‘‘ should be exalted above meas- 
ure ’’—-possibly we have here the meaning of the spines, 
they are ‘‘thorns in the flesh’’?! One scarcely knows 
when it is in blossom, it is such an insignificant matter, 
but the minute flowers ripen nto portentous pods eight 
to ten inches long, and an inch wide, yellowish-green 
as they dangle from the boughs in September, but soon 
blackening and clinging through the winter, till they 
fall, twisted and unsightly, strewing the ground. The 
color of bark and pod gives the name of black locust, 
and ‘‘ honey ’’ locust comes from the yellow pulp in the 
pod. The Park contains several fine clusters of this 
species, the largest being east of the ‘‘ West Drive,’’ 
near the Seventy-second Street entrance. 
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