The Locust. 



the quickness of growth, of this tree. It remains for me 

 to speak in detail of the manner of propagating it, which is 

 only from the seed, which it bears in great abundance, but 

 which will seldom come to complete perfection in England. 

 My seed has always come from the neighbourhood of Har- 

 risbourgh in Pennsylvania, and each seed is nearly double 

 the weight of any that I have ever seen gathered in this 

 country. The seed is gathered in the fall of the year, and 

 it keeps best in the pod ; but, if made perfectly dry before 

 it is put up, and always kept in a dry place, it will grow, 

 though not so well perhaps, after being kept for several 

 years. The seed is as nearly as possible in shape like a 

 kidney bean, but not above a tenth part so big as the seed 

 of the common white running bean ; its colour is a very 

 dark brown. If sown in the fall of the year, or early in 

 the winter, a part of it will come up in the spring of the 

 first year ; but it will be only a small part ; and, the plants 

 which do come up, will, if there be sharp frosts, be very 

 nearly destroyed. I sowed this seed repeatedly, and had 

 very little success. I asked Judge Mitchell in Long 

 Island, who had a nursery of these plants even in that 

 countrj^, how he got them to come up : he answered in two 

 words, ^'boil them I " " Boil them," exclaimed I. The con- 

 versation was turned off upon something else ; but when I 

 found such great difficulty in getting the seeds up at Ken- 

 sington, I recollected the precept of Ma. Mitchell, and 

 I resolved to put it in practice, which I did with complete 

 success ; not by absolutely boiling them,but by soaking them 

 in boiling hot water. 



384. There is, however, a good deal of nicety attending 

 this matter, therefore I shall describe the process very mi- 

 nutely. When you have prepared the beds, in the manner 

 described for the Ash, take in the morning as much seed 



