Locust (Honey). 



Canada and the Mississippi, gave it the vulgar name of 

 Feviei', because they found it bearing its seed in a pod a 

 good deal resembling a very long and narrow-podded bean, 

 that kind of bean, which, in French, is called Fh)e, or 

 F^e de marais. The tree seldom gets to be more than a 

 foot and a half through at the butt. jMichaux says, that 

 the timber is not valuable, and that the tree, besides its 

 value in the ornamental way, is principally valuable for the 

 forming of hedges; and this is, in reality, its great use. 

 The plant comes up quickly, grows fast, has numerous 

 branches, and those very fine ; full as fine as those of the 

 Hawthorn ; and these branches are armed with thorns, 

 which, asMiCHAux says, render the hedge perfectly impe- 

 netrable. Each thorn is nearly two inches long, stout at 

 the bottom where it starts from the branch, and regularly 

 diminishing in size till it comes to the point, which is as 

 sharp as that of any needle that ever was made, and a 

 great deal more difficult to break, or snap off. As if this 

 single dagger were not enough, there come out at about 

 half an inch from the bottom of the thorn, two smaller 

 thorns, each about a third of an inch long, but one a little 

 longer than the other. These two side thorns point in an 

 angular line from the side of the main thorn ; or, to speak 

 more properly, the point of an acute triangle is formed by 

 each of the little thorns, and one side of the main thorn. 

 So that here is a dreadful weapon : here are three of the 

 sharpest things ever seen in the world, pointing at every crea- 

 ture that a])proaches the hedge. 



395. I will now speak about the mode of raising the 

 trees; and then about that of putting them into hedges. 

 The seed, which comes in a pod above described, is a great 

 deal larger than the seed of the Locust : it is, I should 

 think, more than three times as large. It is precisely as 



