218 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



The tree is very large, and with its graceful, fine 

 foliage presents a handsome appearance in midsum- 

 mer. Along the river banks of Illinois it frequently 

 attains an altitude of from 80 to 90 feet.* It is a 

 quite rapid grower, and a seedling will reach a height 

 of 18 or more feet in ten years. In the North the 

 leaves unfold about the middle of May. 



The honey locust grows wild from Pennsylvania 

 southward to northern Alabama and Texas and west- 

 ward to eastern IS'ebraska. There are two varieties 

 frequently found in parks and gardens : var. mermis, 

 without thorns, and var. Bujotii pendula, with ex- 

 ceedingly graceful, drooping fohage. 



Water Locust. The water locust is a much smaller 

 Gleditschia aquatica. tree than the honey locust, but its 

 general character is the same ; it usually attains a 

 height of 30 feet, and rarely 50 or 60 feet. Com- 

 pared with the other locusts its leaflets are smaller, 

 its thorns are less branched and more slender, and 

 the pod is very short (two inches long), rounded, and 

 contains rarely more than one seed, and no sweet 

 pulp. It is found ia the swamps of southern Illinois 

 and Indiana and southward, but is frequently planted 

 in the North for ornament. 



* Prof. Sargent records its maximum height at 140 feet. 



