412, Gleditschis triacanthos. 
brown colour ; they contain hard, smooth, brown seeds, enveloped in a pulpy 
substance, which, for about a month after the maturity of the seeds, is 
very sweet, but after a few weeks becomes extremely sour. The rate of 
growth of this tree, for the first 15 or 20 years, is generally about the average 
of a foot a year; but in favourable situations it will grow at double that rate. 
In the garden of the Hort. Soc., and in the arboretum of the Messrs. Lod- 
diges, plants 10 years planted were, in 1835, from 20 ft. to 25 ft. in height. 
The wood of this tree, when dry, weighs at the rate of 52 |b. the cubic foot : 
it is very hard, and splits with great facility, resembling in this and other re- 
spects the wood of the robinia ; but its grain is coarser, and its pores more 
open. In Britain, this, and all the kinds of the genus, can only be considered 
as ornamental trees; but in that character they hold the first rank; their de- 
licate acacia-like foliage, and the singularly varied, graceful, and picturesque 
forms assumed by the tree, more especially when young or middle-aged, to- 
gether with the singular feature afforded by its spines, will always recommend 
it in ornamental plantations. It requires a deep, rich, free soil, and a situation 
not exposed to high winds ; and it requires the South of England or France 
to ripen the seeds. The species is always propagated by seeds imported from 
America, or from France or Italy. The plants are best transplanted to where 
they are finally to remain when quite young; as they make but few fibrous 
roots, and these take, for the most part, a descending direction. The variety 
G. t. inérmis can only be insured by grafting on the species. In general, how- 
ever, abundance of plants without spines may be selected from beds of seed- 
lings of G. triacanthos. 
£ 2. G. (7.) monosPE’RMA Walt. The one-seeded Gleditschia, or Water 
Locust. 
Identification. Walt. Car., 254. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 479.; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 428. 
Si G. carolinénsis Lam. Dict. 2. p.464.; G.aquatica Marsh.; G.triacantha Gert. Fruct. 
2. p. 149. 
Engravings. Mill. Icon., 5. ; and our fig. 413.; in which the male flower, the pod, and the seed, are 
of the natural size. 
Spec. Char., Sc. Spines slender, not rarely trifid, few. Leaflets ovate-oblong, 
acute. Legumes flattish, roundish, 1-seeded. (Dec. Prod.) A tree of the 
largest size. Native of Carolina, Florida, and the Illinois, in moist woods. 
Height 60 ft. to 80 ft. Introduced in 1723. Flowers greenish; June and 
July. Legume not seen in England. 
Closely resembles the honey locust, from which, in England, where neither 
of them ripens seeds, it is almost impossible to distinguish it. The bark, 
