THE AOACIA. 44,7 
have furnished St. John with food during his 
sojourn in the wilderness. But though resembling 
the Egyptian Acacia in the form of its leaves 
it is otherwise a different Tree. It was first in- 
troduced into Europe by Vespasian Robin, the 
son of Jean Robin, a French botanist, and from 
this circumstance it has derived its generic name 
of Robinia. At one time it was believed that the 
wood of this Tree was greatly superior to Oak; 
and though it has lost some of its reputation as 
English-grown timber, it is nevertheless re- 
markable for peculiar hardness and toughness. 
It is owing partly to the somewhat rugged 
character of its rough-barked limbs, that its 
singularly light and graceful foliage has so charm- 
ing an appearance. Its branches are, however, 
very brittle, and easily snapped by the force of 
high winds. In the pinnate arrangement ‘of 
leaflets on their stem its leaves resemble those of 
the Mountain Ash, but they are otherwise very 
different. The leaflets of the Acacia leaf are 
arranged in opposite pairs along the rachis or 
mid-stem, are borne on short stalks, and are 
largest at the base of the rachis—becoming 
pd 
