

162 



SYLVA AMERICANA, 



Sweet Locust. Gleditschia triacanthos. 







The Sweet Locust belongs 

 peculiarly to the country 

 west of the Alleghanies, and 

 it is scarcely found in any 

 part of the Atlantic States. 

 In the fertile bottoms which 

 are watered by the rivers 

 emptying into the Mississippi, 

 in Illinois, and, still more in 

 the southern parts of Ken- 

 tucky and Tennessee, the 

 sweet locust is abundant, in 

 the most fertile soils. In 

 different parts of the United 

 States, this species is called 

 indifferently Sweet Locust 

 and Honey Locust ; the 

 French of Illinois call it Fevier. 



In situations favorable to its growth, the sweet locust attains 

 the height of 70 or 80 feet with a diameter of 3 or 4 feet, with 

 a trunk undivided for 40 feet. This tree is easily known by its 

 bark, which, at intervals of a few inches, detaches itself laterally 

 in plates three or four inches wide and two or three lines thick, 

 and by the form of its trunk, which appears to be twisted, and 

 which presents three or four crevices of inconsiderable depth, 

 opening irregularly from the bottom towards the top. The large 

 thorns which cover the branches, and frequently the trunk of 

 young trees, afford another very distinct character. These 

 thorns are sometimes several inches long, ligneous, of a reddish 

 color, and armed, at some distance from the base, with two 

 secondary thorns about half the size of the first. The leaves 

 are pinnated and composed of small, oval, serrate, sessile leaflets. 

 This foliage is elegant and of an agreeable tint ; but it is thin, 

 and scarcely obstructs the passage of the sun beams. It is shed 



PLATE xxxiv. 

 Fig. 1. A leaf. Fig. 2. A seed. 



