1 5 1 2 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



small leaflets. This tree has never borne fruit, and cannot be identified with any 

 species known in the wild state. Whether it is a hybrid, which originated at an 

 early period in France, or an unknown species, is uncertain.' A specimen is growing 

 at Colesborne, where it is quite hardy, but does not seem likely to attain a tree-like 

 habit. (A- H-) 



GLEDITSCHIA CASPICA 



Gleditschid caspica, Desfontaines, Hist. Arb. ii. 247 (1809); Spach, Hist. Vig. i. 97 (1834); 



Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 655 (1838); Boissier, Fl. Orient, ii. 631 (1872). 

 Gkditschia horrida, Makino, var. caspica, Schneider, Laubhohkunde, ii. 12 (1907). 



A tree, attaining about 35 ft. in height. Young branchlets glabrous. Leaves 

 simply pinnate or bipinnate with six to eight pairs of pinnae ; leaflets of the pinnate 

 leaves, fourteen to twenty, narrowly elliptical or lanceolate, about \\\.o i^- in. long, 

 and I to f in. wide, rounded at the base, truncate or emarginate with a short mucro 

 at the apex ; upper surface with scattered short hairs on the midrib and nerves, and 

 numerous minute glands on the midrib ; lower surface glabrous, shining ; margin 

 crenulate, ciliate ; stalklet very short, broad, pubescent above, glabrous beneath ; 

 rachis pubescent on the outer edge of the broad glandular often winged groove, else- 

 where glabrous. 



Flowers sub-sessile in slightly pubescent racemes or spikes ; ovary glabrous. 

 Pod thin and flattened, indehiscent, 9 to 12 in. long, i to i^ in. broad, with a sweet 

 edible pulp,^ straight or falcate, dark chestnut brown, smooth without dotted pits, 

 slightly pubescent. Seeds numerous, close to the upper suture of the pod, oval, 

 compressed, about J in. long, shining, dark brown, marked on the surface with trans- 

 verse raised lines. 



The thorns on the branches in this species are chestnut brown, flattened or 

 compressed in section, usually bipinnately branched, the primary branches coming 

 off" in different planes and bearing two or three lateral thorns. The thorns on the 

 stem are much branched, and often very formidable. 



G. caspica is limited to the wooded districts along the south-west coast of the 

 Caspian Sea in Ghilan and Talysch. It is a rare tree, never attaining a large size, 

 Medwedew^ giving its height as 30 to 35 ft. It ascends in the valleys to about 500 

 ft. altitude. The wood is used in the construction of mills, as it is durable under 

 water. Cattle and wild pigs are fond of the sweetish pods. 



G. caspica was introduced into England about 1822 ; 'and is usually seen as a 

 small tree in botanic gardens,* where its remarkable spiny trunk renders it an object 

 of interest. It flowers, and occasionally produces fruit at Cambridge, where there 

 are two trees of different sexes. (A. H.) 



1 Rehder, in Bailey, Cyd. Amer. Hort. 650 (1900), states that G. ferox is often cultivated ; but all the specimens which 

 we have received from the Continent with this name, except the one from Simon-Louis, are referable to G. caspica. 



2 Cf. Hohenacker, in Bull, Soc. Mosc. iv. 351 (1838). 



3 Cf. Koppen, Holzgewachse Eurofi. Russlands, i. 236 (1888), and Radde, Pflanzenverb. Kaukasmldnd. 185, 189, 198 

 (1899). 



« Bean, in Kew Bull. 1908, p. 400, records a handsome tree, 40 ft. high, in the Schonbrunn Botanic Garden near 

 Vienna. 



