100 leguminosvE. [Gleditschia. 



34. G-LEDITSCHIA, Linn. 



Flowers polygamous. Sepals 3 to 5, united in a tube or cup at the base, 

 nearly equal, imbricate in the bud. Petals as many, inserted at the summit 

 of the tube, nearly equal, slightly imbricate. Stamens as many or twice as 

 many, free, nearly equal. Ovary sessile, with 2 or more ovules. Pod long, 

 flat, linear, more or less pulpy. Seeds flattened. Radicle short, straight. — 

 Trees, usually armed with stout, entire, or branched thorns. Leaves once or 

 twice pinnate. Flowers small, in axillary or lateral racemes or raceme-like 

 panicles. 



A small genus, limited to N. America and temperate or subtropical Asia. 



1. G. sinensis, Linn.; DC. Prod. ii. 479. A tree, glabrous or nearly 

 so in all its parts. Thorns on the stem often 2 or 3 in. long and branched. 

 Leaves mostly simply pinnate. Leaflets 8 to 10 pair, very obliquely ovate- 

 lanceolate or between rhomboidal and falcate, 1 to 1^ in. long, rather thin, 

 prominently veined and often slightly crenulate. Panicle narrow and raceme- 

 like, 4 to 8 in. long, the main peduncle stiff and erect, the lateral branches 

 slender, very short, bearing 3 to 5 small, greenish, pedicellate flowers. Petals 

 usually 5. Stamens 10.. . 



Rare in Hongkong, more abundant on the adjacent continental coast, Champion. The 

 Hongkong specimens were mere fragments : 1 have described it from Canton specimens ga- 

 thered by Reeves. The spefeies is probably limited to China. 



SUBORDER III. MIMOSEiE. 



Sepals 5, rarely 4 or 3, free or united. Petals as many, equal, valvate in 

 the bud, free or united. Stamens as many or twice as many, or indefinite, 

 free or united, usually hypogynous. Eadicle of the embryo straight. Leaves 

 twice pinnate, or, in one American genus, once pinnate. Flowers usually 

 small, in dense globular heads or cylindrical spikes. 



35. LETJOEINA, Benth. 

 Calyx 5 -toothed. Petals 5, free. Stamens 10, free, all fertile. Anthers 

 not tipped by a gland. Pod broadly linear, flat, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, 

 transverse. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves twice pinnate. Flowers white, in glo- 

 bular heads, usually hermaphrodite. 



A genus of few species, all American, one of which is now naturalized in many parts of 

 the Old World. 



1. L. glauca, Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. iv. 416. A small tree, the 

 young parts slightly tomentose, otherwise glabrous and without prickles. 

 Leaves with 4 to 6 pair of pinnae. Leaflets 10 to 20 pair on each pinna, 

 oblong-linear, very oblique and slightly falcate, 4 to 6 lines long, pale or 

 glaucous underneath. Peduncles solitary, or 2 or 3 together in the upper 

 axils, 1 to 1^ in. long, the upper ones forming a terminal raceme, each bearing 

 a globular head of 6 to 8 lines, or, with the stamens, near an inch diameter. 

 Pod shortly stalked, 4 to fi in. long, 4 to 6 lines broad. 



In a ravine at the foot of Victoria Peak, Wilford; also Wright. Probably of American 

 origin, but frequently cultivated in that continent as Ay ell as in Africa and Asia, and so 

 often sent as apparently wild, that its real native country cannot be given with certainty. 



