538 



The Honey Locilsts 



The fruit is a leguminous pod, usually many-seeded, rarely i-seeded, elongated, 

 straight, flattened, its walls hard and woody, dehiscent when old, usually pulpy 

 between the seeds, which are transversely placed, obovate, compressed, borne on 

 slender stalks, light brown, crustaceous; endosperm homy. 



The name is in commemoration of the German botanist, John Gottlieb Gle- 

 ditsch, a friend and contemporary of Linnaeus. G. triacanthos is the type species. 

 Our species are : 



Pod oval or elliptic, i- or 2-seeded; ovary smooth. 

 Pod linear or oblong-linear, many-seeded. 



Pod lo to 18 cm. long, not pulpy within. 



Pod 20 to 30 cm. long, pulpy within. 



1. G. aquatica. 



2. G. texana. 



3. G. triacanthos. 



I. WATER LOCUST — Gleditsia aqnatica Marshall 



This rather handsome tree occurs in the coastal region from North Carolina 

 to Florida, and extends westward to Indiana, Arkansas and Texas, forming con- 

 siderable forests on rich lands of river valleys subject to overflow. Its maximum 

 height is 20 meters, with a trunk diameter of 7.5 dm. 



The trunk is often very short, dividing near the base into stout, rather crooked 



branches. The bark is about 4 mm. thick, dull 

 gray to red-brown, shallowly fissured and broken 

 into thin smooth plates. The twigs are smooth, 

 yellowish brown, becoming gray or red-brown 

 and shining. The spines are straight or slightly 

 curved, with one or two short branches, dark 

 reddish brown and shining, flat and ridged, very 

 sharp, often 12 mm. wide at the base and 7 to 

 12 cm. long. The leaves are pirmate or bipin- 

 nate, 10 to 20 cm. long; leaf -stalk slender, round 

 and smooth, 3 to 4 cm. long; there are 6 to 12 

 pairs of leaflets on the pinnate leaves and 3 to 12 

 pairs on the pinnae of the bipiimate form; the 

 leaflets are ovate to oblong or lanceolate, 2 to 

 3.5 cm. long, bltmt or notched at the apex, 

 Toimded or narrowed at the base, often entire be- 

 FiG. 497-- Water Locust. j^^ ^^ middle, dark green and shining above, 



dull green beneath. The flowers appear from April to June, in loose racemes 5 

 to 8 cm. long; the calyx is bell-shaped, its lobes lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 

 blimt-pointed and sUghtly hairy; petals green, oblong or oval-oblong, rather longer 

 than the calyx-lobes; stamens slightly exserted, the anthers green; ovary long- 

 stalked and smooth. The fruit is oval or eUiptic, oblique, 3 to 5 cm. long, 1.5 to 

 2 cm. wide, flat, pulpless, abruptly pointed at each end, long-stalked, brown and 



