LEGUMINOSAE. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. t7 
The wood of Gleditsia triacanthos is hard, strong, and very durable in contact with the ground, 
although it is coarse-grained, with broad bands of large open ducts marking the layers of annual growth, 
and many conspicuous medullary rays. It is red or bright red-brown, with thin pale sapwood composed 
of ten or twelve layers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6740, 
a cubic foot weighing 42.00 pounds. It is largely used for fence-posts and rails, and for the hubs of 
wheels, and somewhat in construction, for which purpose its weight and strength give it value. 
Gileditsia triacanthos was first cultivated in Europe by Bishop Compton! in his garden at 
Fulham near London towards the end of the seventeenth century,” and the first account of it, drawn 
from the cultivated tree, was published by Plukenet? in 1700. 
The Honey Locust* has been extensively planted both in the United States and in Europe since 
its first introduction.’ It has many qualities to recommend it as an ornamental tree for the decoration 
of parks or the borders of highways. It is easily raised from seed and grows rapidly; it is not 
particular about soil; it is extremely hardy, and remarkably free from serious disease and the attacks 
of disfiguring insects. It can support the drought and dirt of cities better than most trees, and when 
well grown few trees compare with it in the beauty of its massive dark trunk and spreading head and 
in the grace and lightness of its lustrous foliage. The lateness of the Honey Locust in covering itself 
with leaves, which do not appear until most trees are in full leaf, is the only serious drawback to it as 
an ornamental tree. Its hardiness, robust growth, and stout well-armed branches make it an excellent 
hedge plant, and it has been largely used for this purpose. 
Few varieties of the Honey Locust have appeared in cultivation, and none of them possess special 
value with the exception of the form known in gardens as Gleditsia Buwjotii,’ distinguished by its 
graceful pendulous branches and small leaflets. 
1 See i. 6. 
2 Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 444. 
8 Acacia Americana Abrue foliis triacanthos, sive ad axillas folio- 
rum spina triplict donata, Alm. Bot. Mant. 1; Amalth. Bot. t. 352, 
f. 1.— Boerhaave, Hort. Lugd. Bat. ii. 56. — Miller, Dict. No. 1. 
Acacia triacanthos, siliquis latis fuscis, pulpa virescente subdulci, 
Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 59. 
Casalpinoides foliis pinnatis ac duplicato-pinnatis, Linneus, Hort. 
Cliff. 489. 
Gleditsia, Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 193. — Linnzus, Hort. Ups. 298. — 
Gouan, Hort. Monsp. 520. 
4 Gleditsia triacanthos is also called in some parts of the country 
Black Locust, Sweet Locust, and Honey Shucks. 
5 Duhamel, Traite des Arbres, i. 265, t. 105. — Evelyn, Silva, ed. 
Hunter, ii. 61.— Cobbett, Woodlands, No. 394.— Loudon, Arb. 
Brit. ii. 650, t. 91. 
6 The pistillate trees are more desirable than the staminate for 
ornamental plantings, as the fruit which hangs in great profusion 
from all the branches is conspicuous and beautiful from midsum- 
mer until it falls. The only sure way of obtaining them is by graft- 
ing seedling plants with grafts taken from trees known to bear 
female flowers. 
7 This handsome and distinct plant appeared previous to 1845 
among a number of seedlings raised by a Monsieur Bujot, a nursery- 
man at Chateau-Thierry (Rev. Hort. 1845, 205). 
