TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



209 



HONEY LOCUST. THREE-THORNED ACACIA. HONEY 



SHUCKS. i^Plate CXI.) 

 Gleditsia triancdnthos. 



Bark: grey and rough, with small scales at the base of the trunk. The 

 young bianclilets reddish brown and having upon them wart-liUe excrescences. 

 Spines : two to four inches long; twice or thrice branched and cur\cd at the 

 base. In very young and old trees they are sometimes absent. Leaves ; com- 

 pound; alternate; with long, downy petioles; abruptly pinnate, or twice 

 pinnate with from ten to twenty-six or more long, oblong leaflets tajjering 

 towards the apex and rounded at the base; entire or slightly toothed; dark 

 green and lustrous above, yellow green below; glabrous; thin. Fio'wers : 

 greenish white ; growing in narrow racemes. Calyx : three to five cleft. 

 Corolla : with from three to five narrow, spreading petals. Legimies: nine to 

 twenty inches long; reddish brown; flat; linear; curved and containing 

 l)etween the seeds a sweet substance which has suggested the name of honey 

 locust. 



It seems as though there 

 were no motion quite as un- 

 dulating and graceful as 

 that of a tree with an abun- 

 dance of fine foliage. This 

 the honey locust has, and 

 about it there is something 

 very interesting. As though 

 to atone for the fact that 

 its leaves are abruptly pin- 

 nate, a growth never as 

 pleasing as when they are 

 terminated by an odd leaf- 

 let, or by a tendril, the end 

 leaflet often again divides 

 itself, and the leaf becomes 

 twice pinnate. In this way 

 it satisfies its desire for a 

 mass of fleecy, light foliage. 

 Growing on the branches 

 just above the axils of 



GUditsia triancdnthos. 



e leaves, or where the leaflets gro 



vv 



