MALTA AND SICILY. 
179 
without foliage, and the carob-tree, or St. 
John’s bread, (ceratonia siliqua,J a beau¬ 
tiful evergreen, with low spreading branches, 
and dark shining leaves. It produces a great 
quantity of flat brown pods, of a mealy con¬ 
sistence and sweetish taste, used as food both 
for men and cattle, but on this island chiefly, 
I believe, for the latter. At present the pods 
are green, and very small. Some persons 
have supposed that it was the fruit of this 
tree which furnished a repast for St. John in 
the wilderness, for they assert that the 
word translated “ locusts” will bear this con¬ 
struction; but there seems no reason for 
such an alteration, as dried locusts are to 
this day an article of food in some eastern 
countries. In the course of our walk we 
discovered a pleasant little grove of carob- 
trees, some of which spread over a surface of 
forty or fifty feet in diameter. On the 
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