PEA FAMILY 
leafless tree is not beautiful. The trunk is often twisted, 
the branches are irregular and twiggy, easily broken, and sa 
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 Rodv- 
ma 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 alsoa 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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