"The tree is not pretty
in winter, and has no promise of beauty until 'May hangs on these
withered boughs a green drapery that hides all their deformity; she
infuses into their foliage a perfection of verdure that no other tree
can rival, and a beauty in the forms of its leaves that renders it one
of the chief ornaments of the groves and waysides. June weaves into this
green foliage pendent clusters of flowers of mingled brown and white,
filling the air with fragrance and enticing the bee with odors as sweet
as from groves of citron and myrtle.'"
"That sounds pretty," said Clara, who liked imposing sentences, "but
brown and white are not very handsome colors for flowers."
"The white is certainly prettier without the mixture of brown," replied
her governess, "but we have to take our flowers ready-made, and can
hardly expect them to be beautiful and fragrant too. The separate
blossoms are shaped like those of the pea and bean; they hang in long
clusters somewhat resembling bunches of grapes. The leaves--or, rather,
leaflets--are very sensitive and have a habit of folding over one
another in wet and dull weather, and also in the night--a habit that is
peculiar to all the members of the acacia family, to which the
locust belongs."
"I should think it ought to belong to the pea family," said Malcolm, "if
the flowers are shaped like pea-blossoms."
"So it does," replied Miss Harson--"or, rather, to the bean family, of
which the pea is a member, on account of its blossoms; but the acacia,
like many others, is a brother, or sister, on account of its leaves as
well as its blossoms.
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