Honey Locust 



539 



shining, its margins somewhat thickened ; it contains i seed, rarely 2; seeds round, 

 flat, brown and shining, about i cm. broad. 



The wood is very hard, strong, coarse-grained and bright reddish brown; its 

 specific gravity is about 0.73. 



2. TEXAN HONEY LOCUST - Gleditsia texana Sargent 



This rare and very local tree, is known only from dry bottom lands on the 

 Brazos River, Texas; it has spreading branches but a narrow head, and attains a 

 maximum height of about 36 meters, with a 

 truck diameter of 7.5 dm. 



The bark is thin, close and smooth; the 

 twigs are slender, somewhat zigzag, yellow at 

 first, becoming gray, and they are spineless. 

 The leaves are once or twice pinnate, about 15 

 cm. long, including the leaf-stalk, which, with 

 the rachis, is slender and hairy at first, becom- 

 ing nearly smooth; the pinnate form has 10 to 

 15 pairs of leaflets, the bipinnate form 3 to 7 

 pairs of pinnae, with 8 to 14 pairs of leaflets, the 

 lowest pair of pinnai often reduced to simple 

 leaflets. The leaflets are thick and firm, ob- 

 long to oblong-lanceolate, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, 

 blunt or pointed at the apex, rounded at the 

 base, deep green and shining above, hairy when 

 young, pale and smooth except along the yel- 

 low midrib beneath. The flowers appear in 

 April and May, in axillary racemes. The 

 staminate flowers are yellow, in slender hairy often clustered racemes, 8 to 10 cm. 

 long when fully grown; the calyx-tube is bell-shaped, its 5 lobes ovate, pointed, 

 and hairy; the petals are somewhat longer and broader than the calyx-lobes; 

 stamens exserted, the filaments slender, hairy near the base, the anthers green. 

 The fruit is very flat, straight, hnear-oblong, 10 to 13 cm. long, blunt at the 

 tipped apex, obliquely rounded at the base, scarcely thickened along the margin, 

 hairy, brown, and pulpless, containing many oval, dark brown and shining seeds 

 10 mm. long. 



Fig. 498. Texan Honey Locust. 



3. HONEY LOCUST Gleditsia triacanthos LiniicTus 



The Honey locust is also called Sweet locust, Black locust. Thorny locust. 

 Thorn tree, Three-thomed acacia, and Honey shucks. It prefers rich river bot- 

 toms, seldom occurring on dr\^ hills, from Ontario to Pennsylvania and Florida, 

 and westward to Kansas and Texas, and is to some extent naturalized in the 



