LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
197 
smell is very fragrant, and hence they are often 
placed on ladies’ work-tables ; they are not eat- 
able, and I know of no other good qualities that 
they possess than their beauty and perfume. Chil- 
dren are fond of carrying them in their pockets, 
and tossing them about as playthings. I have 
■seen what I suppose to be the same species in some 
of the London shops, particularly at a fruiterer’s 
in the Poultry, where it was ticketed as Queen 
Anne’s Pocket Melon.” Now and then the Prickly 
Cucumber (Gucumts anguria) is seen growing in 
a melon field, but I believe, merely as a 'curiosity, 
‘ the globose fruit being covered with sharp spinous 
processes, standing up like those of a hedgehog. 
The fruits of many of our forest trees are now 
fast approaching maturity and I will take this 
■occasion to .describe some remarkable species that 
I have not yet introduced to you. There is, within 
a few yards of me, a fine tree of the Three-thorned 
Locust species [Gleditschia triacanthos) ^ often 
called, from its singular fruit, the Honey Locust. 
, It sometimes grows two or three feet in diameter, 
but this is much smaller. The trunk is usually 
■twisted, and shows longitudinal cavities, opening 
■upwards : this part, as well as the larger branches, 
is studded with stiff and long thorns^ often in for- 
midable clusters, and each armed with smaller spines 
growing from its side. The leaves are bipinnate, 
long, and containing very many small, oval leaf- 
lets ; and being of a pleasing green, give a parti- 
cularly light and elegant character to the foliage. 
■From the smaller branches hang enormous pods, 
which are about a foot long and one or two inches 
wide, flattened, and irregularly curved, of a light 
reddish brown hue when ripe. The inner surface 
