50 LEGUMINACE^E. 



that although used on account of its durability for many 

 minor purposes, or where timber of a small size only is 

 required, it seldom attains sufficient scantling to make it 

 generally useful. 



We can only suppose that the majority of his readers 

 and admirers were deceived by the name under which it 

 was thus introduced, and actually believed it to be a new 

 tree, and this appears to have been the fact from what 

 Loudon states in the "Arboretum Britannicum," he tells 

 us that though quantities of plants of the Rob. pseud- 

 acacia stood unasked for in the nurseries around London 

 and other places, the Locust, which every one imagined 

 could only be had genuine from Mr. Cobbett, was in such 

 demand that he could not grow plants in sufficient quantity 

 or fast enough to supply it, that he then had recourse 

 to those very nurseries, and purchased their plants to a 

 great extent in order to supply his customers until more 

 could be raised from the tons of seed he imported from 

 America. 



The very rapid growth of the Locust, for a few years 

 after planting, tended to keep up the delusion, and those 

 who were not aware of the habit of the tree, felt confident, 

 from witnessing this rapid progress, that whatever Cobbett 

 had written or predicted respecting it was correct, and 

 about to be verified ; this circumstance, we need scarcely 

 add, favoured Mr. Cobbett^ views as a nurseryman, and 

 enabled him, for several years, to reap a rich harvest by 

 the sale of his plants. Sixteen or seventeen years have 

 now elapsed since the Locust mania first prevailed, and 

 it may be much doubted whether the expectations of 

 those who planted it with a view to profit, are now as 

 sanguine as they were some six or eight years ago. The 



