192 LEGUMINOSiE. Gleditschia. 



26. GLEDITSCHIA. Linn.; Lam. ill. t. 857 ; Endl. gen. 6756. HONEY LOCUST. 



[ In honor of John Gottlieb Gleditsch, a German botanist of the last century.] 



Flowers polygamous. Sepals 3-5, equal, united at the base. Petals as many as the sepals, 

 or sometimes fewer ; the 2 lower ones sometimes united. Stamens as many as the sepals, 

 and opposite to them ; or often 6-9, one or more of them abortive, and belonging to an 

 inner series. Style short, incurved : stigma pubescent. Legume flat, continuous, often 

 intercepted internally between the seeds, dry or with a sweet pulp surrounding the seeds, 

 which are solitary or numerous. Seeds oval, compressed : testa hard and crustaceous. 

 Embryo surrounded with a thin albumen. Cotyledons flat, greenish. — Trees, with the 

 supra-axillary branches often converted into simple or branched spines. Leaves abruptly 

 pinnate or bipinnate ; the leaflets somewhat serrate ! Flowers small, greenish, spicate. 



1. Gleditschia triacanthos, Linn. Honey Locust. Sweet Locust. 



Spines thick ; leaflets lanceolate-oblong ; legume linear-oblong, much elongated, many- 

 seeded ; the intervals filled with a sweet pulp. — Lin7i. sp. 2. j). 1056 ; Michx. Jl. 2. p. 257 ; 

 "Duham. arb. [ed. nov.) 4. t. 25 ;" Midix. f. sylv. 2. t. 79 ; Willd. sp. 4. p. 1097; Pursh, 

 fl.l.p. 221 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 709 ; DC. prodr. 2. p. 479 ; Torr. compend. p. 375 ; Beck, hot. 

 p. 93 ; Torr. ^ Gr. fl.N.Am.l. p. 398. 



A middle sized tree ; the trunk, in this State, seldom more than a foot and a half in dia- 

 meter ; when young, very spiny. Spines 2-3 inches long, usually triple, or furnished with 

 two branches towards the base, sometimes compound, often disappearing as the tree advances 

 in age. Leaves 6-10 inches or more in length, pinnate. Leaflets three-fourths of an inch 

 long, nearly smooth. Racemes 1-2 inches long ; the staminate and perfect ones nearly 

 similar in form. Calyx villous, turbinate at the base : sepals oblong, rather obtuse. Petals 

 a little smaller than the sepals. Stamens 5 - 7 in the staminate flowers, 6 - 8 in the perfect 

 ones, 1 - 3 of them often abortive : anthers oval, versatile, opening longitudinally. Ovary 

 villous: style rather short, incurved: stigma thick, capitate. Legume 9 - 18 inches long, 

 somewhat falcate and twisted. 



Not native in the State, but often planted about houses for ornament, and for hedges ; nearly 

 naturalized in some places. July. It is a native of the Western and Southern States. The 

 wood is of but little value. Its foliage is very neat, but so thin as hardly to exclude the rays 

 of the sun. 



