Many of the Mimosa genus are signalised by their 
tremendous spines. Dr. Drummond mentions one, the 
thorn tree, a native of the south of Africa, which from 
top to bottom is clothed with enormous double thorns, 
from four to six inches in length, pointing in every di¬ 
rection, and forming thickets impenetrable to every ani¬ 
mal except the rhinoceros. The prickly-pear is another 
formidable plant, which “renders travelling extremely 
difficult along some parts of the banks of the Missouri, 
where its spines are so strong, that they will pierce a 
double shoe sole made of dressed deer skin.” 
These instances have been selected as bearing the 
broader lineaments of the curse ; and, surely, it would 
be impossible for a believer in Revelation to traverse 
the regions where such trees are indigenous, without 
frequent recurrences to the awful truth with which they 
appear to stand connected. 
Christ’s thorn (Rhamnus paliurus) forms a species 
of a very comprehensive genus. It is described as a 
tree rising to tbe height of eight or ten feet, “ sending 
out weak slender branches, garnished with oval leaves 
of a pale green; the flowers coming out at the wings 
of the stalk in clusters, almost the length of the young 
branches ; of a greenish-yellow colour. They are suc¬ 
ceeded by broad, buckler-shaped seed-vessels, which 
