T' EE-THORNED GLEDITSCHIA. 213 



green. They appear rather : e in spring, and begin to tnrn yellow, and drop 

 off early in autumn. The fi<#^vers, which open in June, are small and rather 

 inconspicuous, the male being in the form of catkin-like racemes, of nearly the 

 same colour of the leaves. The fruit is in the form of flat, crooked, pendulous 

 pods, from twelve to eighteen inches in length, of a reddish-brown colour. They 

 contain numerous hard, smooth, brown seeds, enveloped in a pulpy substance, 

 which, for about a month after maturity, is very sweet, but which, in a few- 

 weeks after, becomes extremely sour. The pods often remain upon the trees 

 some time after the leaves have fallen. The seeds usually ripen in the United 

 States towards the end of September. 



Varieties. The varieties recognized under this species are as follows : 



1. G. T. iNERMis, De Candolle. Spineless Honey Locust^ the stem and branches 

 of which are either entirely without spines, or sparingly so. There is a tree of 

 this variety at Syon, near London, seventy-two feet in height, with a trunk 

 nearly two and a half feet in diameter, and an ambitus of seventy-one feet. 



2. G. T. BRACHYCARPOS, Michaux. Slioi-t-fniited Honey Locust^ with short 

 spines, and oblong pods, much shorter than those of the species. 



Gpography and History. The Gleditschia triacanthos is sparingly found in 

 the United States, from Pennsylvania to Georgia and Louisiana. It seems to 

 belong more particularly to the country west of the Alleghanies; and it is 

 scarcely found growing wild anywhere except in the fertile bottoms which are 

 watered by the rivers that empty themselves into the Mississippi, and Illinois, 

 especially in the southern parts of Kentucky and Tennessee. It is generally 

 associated with the Juglans nigra, Carya squamosa, Ulmus rubra, Fraxinus 

 americana quadrangulata, Robinia pseudacacia, Negundo fraxinifolium, and 

 Gymnocladus canadensis. It is cultivated for ornament in the Atlantic cities 

 and towns, from Schenectady, in New York, to Savannah, in Georgia. 



This species was first cultivated in Britain in 170U, by Bishop Compton, in 

 the pala.ce garden, at Fulham; and Miller informs us that it produced pods there 

 of full size, in 1728; but the seeds did not come to maturity. 



The largest Gleditschia triacanthos in England, is at Syon, near London, 

 which is fifty-seven feet in height, with a trunk three feet in diameter, and an 

 ambitus of sixty-three feet. 



In Renfrewshire, in Scotland, in the Glasgow botanic garden, there is another 

 tree, planted against a wall, which is generally killed down to the ground every 

 year ; but in Haddingtonshire, at Tyningham, there is a tree which attained a 

 height of nearly forty feet, in twenty years after planting. 



This species was known in France in the time of Uu Hamel, Avho recommends 

 it as an ornamental tree, but liable to have its branches broken by the wnnd, 

 more especially when the trunk divides into two branches of equal size, and 

 becomes forked at the summit. It ripens its seeds freely in France, as well as in 

 southern Europe generally, from which plants are easily raised. 



The largest Gleditschia triacanthos growing in France, is in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, at Paris, which attained the height of eighty feet in one hundred years 

 after planting, with a trunk two feet in diameter. 



In Italy, at Monza, this species attained the height of thirty feet in twenty- 

 nine years after planting. It was used also in Lombardy for hedges, but, like 

 the common locust, when tried for the same purpose, Avas soon abandoned. 



In Prussia, at Sans Souci, this tree attained a height of fifty feet in forty-five 

 years after planting. 



In Russia, in the Crimea, it ripened seeds, in 1827, from which young plants 

 were raised. 



Soil, Situntlon, Propagation^ S^'c. The Gleditschia triacanthos, in it.s natural 

 habitat, is never found except where the soil is good, and its presence, Michaux 



