Handbook of Trees of the j^oethebn States and Canada. 289 



The Honey Locust attains the height of from 

 75 to 140 ft. wlit'u growing in the forests, anil 

 when isolated develops a broad rounded or 

 lofty flat-topped head with drooping lateral 

 branches and of very characteristic aspect. Its 

 trunk, commonly 2 or 3 ft. in diameter, excep- 

 tionally 5 or ft., is vested in a dark gray 

 bark with closely appressed firm scales. It 

 usually bears a rigid sharp 1-3-pointed glossy 

 purple-brown thorn above the axil of each leuf, 

 and the trunk and bases of the large branches 

 often bristle with very formidable branching 

 thorns, but trees are occasionally met with in 

 which the thorns are nearly or entirely absent. 

 It inhabits chiefly moist bottom-lands in com- 

 pany with various Oaks and Hickories, the 

 Black Walnut, Hackberry, Buckej'e, etc., and 

 although growing naturallj' only west of the 

 Alleghanies and in the Mississippi valley has 

 become widely naturalized outside of its origi- 

 nal range. It is extensively planted for orna- 

 mental purposes, hedges, etc. From its incon- 

 spicuous flowers the bees gather much honey. 



Its wood is heavy, a cu. ft. when absolutely 



dry weighing 42 lbs., strong and very durable 



and is used for railway-ties, posts and in the 



manufaeture of agricultural implements. - 



Lrai'cs 7-10 in. long with 7-10 pairs of leaflets 

 or 4-8 pairs of pinna^ with pubescent petioles and 

 rachises, the leaflets short-stalked, oblong-lance- 

 olate, inequilateral at Iiase, obtuse or rounded at 

 each end. crenulate, lustrous dark green above, 

 paler and often pubescent on the midribs beneath. 

 Flowrrs (.Tune) from axils of the leaves of the 

 previous season, green and rich in hone.v, the 

 starainate in dense and sometimes clustered rac^'- 

 mes, the pistillate in few-flowered and usually 

 solitary racemes. Fruit pods, linear, 10-1 S in. 

 long, shining dark brown and usually contorted 

 and twisted in short racemes and containing 

 numerous hard oval compressed seeds separated by 

 a sweetish succulent pnln'^ 



1. Sometimes spelled Gleditscliia. 



2. A. W., II, 28. 



3. For genus see p. 442. 



