610 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



puberulous, slightly thickened on the margins, many-seeded, without pulp; seeds oval, 

 compressed, dark chestnut-brown, very lustrous, \' long. 



A tree, 100-120 high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 2| in diameter, ascending and 

 spreading branches forming a narrow head, and comparatively slender more or less zigzag 

 branchlets roughened by numerous small round lenticels, light orange-brown when they 

 first appear, gray or orange-brown during their first year, ashy gray the following season, 

 and unarmed. Bark thin and smooth. 



Distribution. Only in a single grove on the bottom-lands of the Brazos River, near 

 the town of Brazoria, Brazoria County, Texas. 



3. Gleditsia aquatica Marsh. Water Locust. 



Leaves 5 '-8' long, 12-20-foliolate, or bipinnate, with 3 or 4 pairs of pinnae; leaflets 

 ovate-oblong, usually rounded or rarely emarginate at apex, unequally cuneate at base, 



Fig. 559 



slightly and remotely crenate or often entire below T the middle, glabrous with the exception 

 of a few hairs on the short stout petiolule, dull yellow-green and lustrous on the upper 

 surface, dark green on the lower surface, about 1' long and %'-%' wide. Flowers appearing 

 in May and June after the leaves are fully grown on short stout purple puberulous pedicels, 

 in slender racemes 3 '-4' long; calyx-tube covered with orange-brown pubescence, the lobes 

 narrow, acute, slightly pilose on the two surfaces, as long as but narrower than the green 

 erect petals rounded at apex; filaments hairy toward the base; anthers large, green; ovary 

 long-stipitate, glabrous. Fruit fully grown in August, pendent in graceful racemes, 

 obliquely ovoid, long-stalked, crowned with a short stout tip, thin, l'-2' long, 1' broad, with- 

 out pulp, its valves thin, tough, papery, bright chestnut-brown, lustrous and somewhat 

 thickened on the margins; seeds 1 or rarely 2 or 3, flat, nearly orbicular, orange-brown, 

 ^' in diameter. 



A tree, 50-60 high, with a short trunk 2-2| in diameter, usually dividing a few feet 

 from the ground into stout spreading often contorted branches forming a wide irregular 

 flat-topped head, and glabrous orange-brown branchlets becoming in their second year 

 gray or reddish brown, marked by occasional large pale lenticels, and armed with usually 

 flattened simple or short-branched straight or falcate sharp rigid spines 3 '-5' long, about 

 \' broad at the base, and dark red-brown and lustrous. Bark \'-% thick, smooth, dull 

 gray or reddish brown, and divided by shallow fissures into small plate-like scales. Wood 

 heavy, very hard and strong, coarse-grained, rich bright brown tinged with red, with thick 

 light clear yellow sapwood of about 40 layers of annual growth. 



Distribution. Eastern South Carolina to Florida, through the coast region of the Gulf 



