538 



The Honey Locusts 



The fruit is a leguminous pod, usually many-seeded, rarely i-seeded, elongated, 

 straight, flattened, its walls hard and woody, dehiscent when old, usually pulpy 

 between the seeds, which are transversely placed, obovate, compressed, borne on 

 slender stalks, light brown, crustaceous; endosperm homy. 



The name is in commemoration of the German botanist, John Gottlieb Gle- 

 ditsch, a friend and contemporary of Linnaeus. G. triacanthos is the type species. 

 Our species are: 



Pod oval or elliptic, i- or 2-seeded; ovary smooth. 

 Pod linear or oblong-linear, many-seeded. 



Pod ID to i8 cm. long, not pulpy within. 



Pod 20 to 30 cm. long, pulpy within. 



1. G. aquatica. 



2. G. texana. 



3. G. triacanthos. 



I. WATER LOCUST Gleditsia aquatica Marshall 



This rather handsome tree occurs in the coastal region from North Carolina 

 to Florida, and extends westward to Indiana, Arkansas and Texas, forming con- 

 siderable forests on rich lands of river valleys subject to overflow. Its maximum 

 height is 20 meters, with a trunk diameter of 7.5 dm. 



The trunk is often very short, dividing near the base into stout, rather crooked 



branches. The bark is about 4 mm. thick, duU 

 gray to red-brown, shallowly fissured and broken 

 into thin smooth plates. The twigs are smooth, 

 yellowish brown, becoming gray or red-brown 

 and shining. The spines are straight or slightly 

 curved, with one or two short branches, dark 

 reddish brown and shining, flat and ridged, very 

 sharp, often 12 mm. wide at the base and 7 to 

 12 cm. long. The leaves are pinnate or bipin- 

 nate, 10 to 20 cm. long; leaf-stalk slender, round 

 and smooth, 3 to 4 cm. long; there are 6 to 12 

 pairs of leaflets on the pinnate leaves and 3 to 12 

 pairs on the pinnae of the bipinnate foiTn; the 

 leaflets are ovate to oblong or lanceolate, 2 to 

 3.5 cm. long, blunt or notched at the apex, 

 rounded or narro ved at the base, often entire be- 

 FiG. 497- -Water Locust. j^^ ^^^ middle, diirk green and shining above, 



dull green beneath. The flowers appear from Apnl to June, in loose racemes 5 

 to 8 cm. long; the calyx is bell-shaped, its lobes laiceolate to oblong- lanceolate, 

 blunt-pointed and shghtly hairy; petals green, obloj.g or oval-oblong, rather longer 

 than the calyx-lobes; stamens shghtly exserted, ihe anthers green; ovary long- 

 stalked and smooth. The fruit is oval or elhptic, obhque, 3 to 5 cm. long, 1.5 to 

 2 cm. wide, flat, pulpless, abruptly pointed at each end, long-stalked, brown and 



