XXV. LEGUMINA^CE^E ! GLEDl'TSCH/yf. 



251 



4 1 2. Gleditschij triacanthos. 



brown colour ; they contain hard, smooth, brown seeds, enveloped in a pulpy 

 substance, which, for about a month after the maturity of the seeds, is 

 very sweet, but after a few weeks becomes extremely sour. The rate of 

 growth of this tree, for the first 15 or 20 years, is generally about the average 

 of a foot a year ; but in favourable situations it will grow at double that rate. 

 In the garden of the Hort. Soc., and in the arboretum of the Messrs. Lod- 

 diges, plants 10 years planted were, in 1835, from 20 ft. to 25 ft. in height. 

 The wood of this tree, when dry, weighs at the rate of 52 Ib. the cubic foot : 

 it is very hard, and splits with great facility, resembling in this and other re- 

 spects the. wood of the robinia ; but its grain is coarser, and its pores more 

 open. In Britain, this, and all the kinds of the genus, can only be considered 

 as ornamental trees; but in that character they hold the first rank; their de- 

 licate acacia-like foliage, and the singularly varied, graceful, and picturesque 

 forms assumed by the tree, more especially when young or middle-aged, to- 

 gether with the singular feature afforded by its spines, will always recommend 

 it in ornamental plantations. It requires a deep, rich, free soil, and a situation 

 not exposed to high winds ; and it requires the South of England or France 

 to ripen the seeds. The species is always propagated by seeds imported from 

 America, or from France or Italy. The plants are best transplanted to where 

 they are finally to remain when quite young ; as they make but few fibrous 

 roots, and these take, for the most part, a descending direction. The variety 

 G. t. inermis can only be insured by grafting on the species. In general, how- 

 ever, abundance of plants without spines may be selected from beds of seed- 

 lings of G. triacanthos. 



2. G. (T.) MONOSPE'RMA Walt. The one-seeded Gleditschia, or Water 



Locust. 



Identification. Walt. Car., 254. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 479. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 428. 



Synonymes. G. carolinensis Lam. Diet. 2. p. 464. ; G.aquatica Marsh. ; G.triacSntha Gcert. Fruct. 



2. p. 149. 

 Engravings. Mill. Icon., 5. ; and our fig. 413. ; in which the male flower, the pod, and the seed, are 



of the natural size. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Spines slender, not rarely trifid, few. Leaflets ovate-oblong, 

 acute. Legumes flattish, roundish, 1-seeded. (Dec. Prod.) A tree of the 

 largest size. Native of Carolina, Florida, and the Illinois, in moist woods. 

 Height 60ft. to 80 ft. Introduced in 1723. Flowers greenish; June and 

 July. Legume not seen in England. 



Closely resembles the honey locust, from which, in England, where neither 

 of them ripens seeds, it is almost impossible to distinguish it. The bark, 



