Genus GLEDITSCHIA, Linn. 



Leguminaceae. Polygamia DicEcia. 



Syst. Nat. Si/at. Lin. 



Synonymes 



Acacia, Gleditsckia, Of Authors. 



Derivaticna. The word Acacia, is derived from the Celtic ac, a point, and has reference to the spinea of the true acacia, an 

 Egyptian tree which this genus somewhat resembles. The generic name, Gledilschia, was so named in honour of Gottlieb Gle- 

 dilsch, of Leipsic, once a professor at Berlin, and defender of Linnsus against Siegeabeck. 



Generic Characters. Branchlets supra-axillary, and often converted into branched spines. Leaves 

 abruptly pinnate ; in the same species pinnate, bipinnate, or, rarely, by the coalition of the leaflets, 

 almost simple. Flowers greenish, in spikes. Among the ovaries, it often happens, especially among 

 those of the terminal flowers, that two grow together by their seed-bearing suture, which is rather vil- 

 lose. De Candolle, Prodromus. 



|HE genus Gleditschia, in its indigenous state, appears to be con- 

 fined to North America and China. It probably embraces not 

 more than three distinct species, two American and one Chinese. 

 The latter, Gleditschia sinensis, is distinguished by its trunk being 

 more spiny than its branches. To the same natural family be- 

 longs the carob-tree, (Ceratonia siliqua,) which is generally con- 

 sidered as the locust-tree mentioned in the Bible. On this subject, Professor 

 Martin remarks, that, the ignorance of eastern manners and natural history, 

 induced some persons to fancy that the locusts on which Saint John the Baptist 

 fed, were the tender shoots of plants, and that the wild honey was the pulp of 

 the pod of the carob ; whence it is sometimes called " Saint John's bread." There 

 is little reason to suppose, he adds, that the shells of the carob pod might be the 

 husks which the prodigal son desired to partake of with the swine. This tree is 

 very common in the south of Spain, where it is called algarrobo, and its seeds or 

 beans are eaten there by man as well as by animals, as was the case in IS 11 and 

 1812, when they formed, at times, the principal food of the horses of the British 

 cavalry. From the curious, horn-like pods of this tree, and the sweet fecula con- 

 tained in its seeds, it well deserves to be extensively cultivated in the southern 

 states of the union, by all who have means and conveniences for raising it. 



