PEA FAMILY 



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

 the branches are irreg-ular and twiggy, easily broken, and sc 

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

 instance where the contour of the tree lias 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 ti5 the ligneous tissue. 



The Locust begins in its third year to convert its sapwood 

 into lieartwood, 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 niglit is the habit of the entire 

 leguminous fanhlv. This peculiaritv of the tree led a child 

 to sa\', " It is not bed time, the locust tree has not begun its 

 p raver." 



The name Locust is said to have been given to our liol'i- 

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

 tree that sup-purtcd St. John in the wilderness. L.ut it is 

 native only to North America. Tlie h.icust tree of Spain, 

 which is also a native of Svria, is su|iposed to be the true 

 locust of the Xew Testament ; the friht of this tree may be 

 found in the shops under the name of St. J(jhn's bread. 



RoHiiia is now a Nh.)rth .\merican genus — but traces of i? 

 are found in the eocene and miocene rocks of Europe. 



los 



