100 LEGUMiNos^. [Gleditsehia. 



34. GLEDITSCHIA, Linn. 



Flowers polygamous. Sepals 3 to 5, united in a tube or cup at the base, 

 nearly equal, imbricate in the bud. Petals as many, inserted at the summit 

 of the tube, nearly equal, slightly imbricate. Stamens as many or twice as 

 many, free, nearly equal. Ovary sessile, with 3 or more ovides. Pod long, 

 flat, linear, more or less pulpy. Seeds flattened. Eadicle short, straight. — 

 Trees, usually armed with stout, entire, or branched thorns. Leaves once or 

 twice pinnate. Flowers small, in axillary or lateral racemes or raceme-like 

 panicles: 



A small genus, limited to N. America and temperate or subtropical Asia. 



1. G. sinensis, Linn.; BO. Prod. ii. 479. A tree, glabrous or nearly, 

 so in aU its parts. Thorns on the stem often 2 or 3 in. long and branched. 

 Leaves mostly simply pinnate. Leaflets 8 to 10 pair, very obliquely ovate- 

 lanceolate or between rhomboidal and falcate, 1 to H in. long, rather thin, 

 prominently veined and often slightly crenulate. Panicle narrow and raceme- 

 like, 4 to 8 in. long, the main peduncle stiff and erect, the lateral branches 

 slender, very short, bearing 3 to 5 small, greenish, pedicellate flowers. Petals 

 usually 5. Stamens 10. 



Bare in Hongkong, more abundant on the adjacent continental coast, Champion. Tiie 

 Hongkong specimens were mere fragments : I have described it from Canton specimens ga- 

 thered by Reeves. The species is probably limited to China, 



SUBOEBEK III. niiiaosE.a:. 



Sepals 5, rarely 4 or 3, free or united. Petals as many, equal, valvate in 

 the bud, free or united. Stamens as many or twice as many, or indefinite, 

 free or united, usually hypogynous. Eadicle of the embi-yo straight. Leaves 

 twice pinnate, or, in one American genus, once pinnate. Flowers usually 

 small, in dense globular heads or cylindrical spikes. 



.35. LEUC-ffilH-A, Benth. 



Calyx 5-toothed. Petals B, free. Stamens 10, free, all fertile. Anthers 

 not tipped by a gland. Pod broadly linear, flat, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, 

 transverse.— Trees or shrubs. Leaves twice pinnate. Flowers white, in glo- 

 bular heads, usually hermaphrodite. 



iu ■'Sl^i^Sf, °\ l^"^ species, all American, one of which is now naturalized in many parts of 

 the Old World. ' ' 



1. L. glauca, Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. iv. 416. A small tree, the 

 young parts shghtly tomentose, otherwise glabrous and without prickles. 

 Leaves with 4 to 6 paii- of pinnse. Leaflets 10 to 20 pair- on each pinna, 

 oblong-hnear, very obhque and slightly falcate, 4 to 6 Unes long, pale or 

 glaucous underneath. Peduncles solitary, or 2 or 3 together in the upper 

 axite, 1 to 1 3 in. long the upper ones forming a terminal raceme, each bearing 

 a globular head of 6 to 8 hnes or, with the stamens, neai- an inch diameter 

 Pod shortly stalked, 4 to fi m. long, 4 to 6 lines broad. 



In a ravine at the foot of Victoria Peak, WUford; also Wright. Probably of imerican 

 origin, but iiequently cultivated in that continent as well as 1 Africa tid A ia^n 

 often sent as apparently wild, that its real native country cnnot be glje,, w^h cer^nTy 



