G. CERCIS L.
Trees or shrubs, with scaly bark, slender unarmed branchlets prolonged by an upper
axillary bud, marked by numerous minute pale lenticels, and in their first winter by small
elevated horizontal leaf-scars showing the ends of two large fibro-vascular bundles, and
small scaly obtuse axillary buds covered by imbricated ovate chestnut-brown scales.
Leaves simple, entire, 5-7-nerved with prominent nerves, long-petiolate, deciduous;
petioles slender, terete, abruptly enlarged at apex; stipules ovate, acute, small, membrana-
ceous, caducous. Flowers appearing in early spring before or with the leaves on thin
jointed pedicels, in simple fascicles or racemose clusters produced on branches of the previ-
ous or earlier years, or on the trunk, with small scale-like bracts often imbricated at the
base of the inflorescence, and minute bractlets; calyx disciferous, short-turbinate, purplish,
persistent, the tube oblique at base, campanulate, enlarged on the lower side, 5-toothed,
the short broad teeth imbricated in the bud; corolla subpapilionaceous; petals nearly
equal, rose color, oblong-ovate, rounded at apex, unguiculate, slightly auricled on one
side of the base of the blade, the upper petal slightly smaller and inclosed in the bud by the
wing-petals encircled by the broader slightly imbricated keel-petals; stamens 10, inserted
in 2 rows on the margin of the thin disk, free, declinate, those of the inner row opposite
the petals and rather shorter than the others; filaments enlarged and pilose below the
middle, persistent until the fruit is grown; anthers uniform, oblong, attached on the back
near the base; ovary short-stalked, inserted obliquely in the bottom of the calyx-tube;
style filiform, fleshy, incurved, with a stout obtuse terminal stigma; ovules 2-ranked, at-
tached to the inner angle of the ovary. Legume stalked, oblong or broad-linear, straight
on the upper edge, curved on the lower edge, acute at the ends, compressed, tipped with
the thickened remnants of the style, many-seeded, 2-valved, the valves coriaceo-mem-
branaceous, many-veined, tardily dehiscent by the dorsal and often by the wing-margined
ventral suture, dark red-purple and lustrous at maturity. Seeds suspended transversely
on a slender funicle, ovoid or oblong, compressed, the small depressed hilum near the
apex; seed-coat crustaceous, bright reddish brown; embryo surrounded by a thin layer of
horny albumen, compressed; cotyledons oval, flat, the radicle short, straight or obliquely
incurved, slightly exserted.
Cercis is confined to eastern and western North America, southern Europe, and to
southwestern, central and eastern Asia. Of the eight species now distinguished, three
occur in North America. Two of these are arborescent.
The generic name is from /cepxi's, the Greek name of the European species, from a fan-
cied resemblance of the fruit to the weaver's implement of that name.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Flowers in sessile clusters; leaves ovate, acute, cordate or truncate at base.
1. C. canadensis (A, C).
Flowers fascicled or slightly racemose: leaves reniform. 2. C. reniformis (C).
604 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
1. Cercis canadensisL. Redbud. Judas-tree.
Leaves broad-ovate, acute or acuminate and often abruptly contracted at apex into a
short broad point, truncate or more or less cordate at base, entire, glabrous with the ex-
ception of axillary tufts of white hairs, or sometimes more or less pubescent below, 3 '-5'
long and broad; turning in the autumn before falling bright clear yellow; petioles 2'-5'
in length. Flowers \' long, on pedicels \'-\' in length and fascicled 4-8 together; rarely
white (var. alba Rehdr.). Fruit fully grown in the south by the end of May and at the
north at midsummer, and then pink or rose color, 2'-3|' long, falling late in the autumn
or in early winter; seeds about j' long.
A tree, sometimes 40-50 high, with a straight trunk usually separating 10-12 from
the ground into stout branches covered with smooth light brown or gray bark, and form-
Fig. 554
ing an upright or often a wide flat head, and slender glabrous somewhat angled branch-
lets, brown and lustrous during their first season, becoming dull and darker the following
year and ultimately dark or grayish brown. Bark of the trunk about \' thick and divided
by deep longitudinal fissures into long narrow plates, the bright red-brown surface separat-
ing into thin scales. Wood heavy, hard, not strong, close-grained, rich dark brown tinged
with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 8-10 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Borders of streams and rich bottom-lands, forming, especially west of
the Alleghany Mountains, an abundant undergrowth to the forest; valley of the Delaware
River, New Jersey, central and southern Pennsylvania southward to northern Florida,
northern Alabama and southern Mississippi (Crystal Springs, Copiah County), and west-
ward to southwestern Ontario (Point Pelee, Essex County), and through southern Michi-
gan to southern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, western Oklahoma (Major
and Dewey Counties), Louisiana, and the valley of the Brazos River, Texas; and on the
Sierra Madre of Nuevo Leon; common and of its largest size in southwestern Arkansas,
Oklahoma and eastern Texas, and in early spring a conspicuous feature of the landscape.
Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northeastern states, and occasionally in
western Europe.
2. Cercis reniformis Engl. Redbud.
Cercis texensis Sarg.
Leaves reniform, when they unfold light green and slightly pilose, and at maturity
subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler, glabrous or pubescent
on the lower surface, and 2'-3' in diameter; petioles l'-2' in length. Flowers about %'
LEGUMINOS^E
605
long, on slender pedicels '-' in length and fascicled in sessile clusters, or occasionally^
racemose. Fruit 2'-4' long, '-1' wide; seeds \' long.
A slender tree, occasionally 20 or rarely 40 high, with a trunk 6'-12' in diameter, and
glabrous branchlets marked by numerous minute white lenticels, light reddish brown
during their first and second years, becoming dark brown in their third season; more
often a shrub, sending up numerous stems and forming dense thickets only a few feet high.
Fig. 555
Bark of the trunk and branches thin, smooth, light gray. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained f
brown streaked with yellow, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 5 or 6 layers of annual
growth.
Distribution. Limestone hills and ridges; neighborhood of Dallas, Dallas County,
Texas to the Sierra Madre of Nuevo Leon; common in the valley of the upper Colorado
River, Texas; of its largest size on the mountains of northeastern Mexico.
7. GYMNOCLADUS Lam.
Trees, with stout unarmed blunt branchlets with a thick pith, prolonged by axillary
buds, rough deeply fissured bark, thick fleshy roots, and minute buds depressed in pubes-
cent cavities of the bark, 2 in the axil of each leaf, superposed, remote, the lower and
smaller sterile and nearly surrounded by the enlarged base of the petiole, their scales 2,
ovate, rounded at apex, coated with thick dark brown tomentum, infolded one over the
other, accrescent with the young shoots. Leaves deciduous, unequally bipinnate; pinna?
many-foliolulate, with 1 or 2 pairs of the lowest pinnse reduced to single leaflets; pinnae
and leaflets usually alternate; leaflets thin, ovate, entire, petiolulate; stipules foliaceous,
early deciduous. Flowers regular, dioecious, greenish white, long-pedicellate, the slender
pedicels from the axils of long lanceolate scarious caducous bracts, bibracteolate near the
middle; stamina te flowers in a short terminal racemose corymb; pistillate flowers in
elongated terminal racemes, on pedicels much longer than those of the staminate flowers;
.calyx tubular, elongated, 10-ribbed, lined with a thin glandular disk, 5-lobed, the lobes
lanceolate, acute, nearly equal, erect; petals 4 or 5, oblong, rounded or. acute at apex,
pubescent, as long as the calyx-lobes or rather longer and twice as broad, inserted on the
margin of the disk, spreading or reflexed; stamens 10, free, inserted with the petals, erect,
included; filaments filiform, pilose, those opposite the petals shorter than the others;
anthers oblong, uniform, small and sterile in the pistillate flower; ovary sessile or slightly
stipitate, acute; styles short, erect, obliquely dilated into 2 broad lobes stigmatic on their
606
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
inner surface, rudimentary or in the sterile flower; ovules numerous, suspended from the
angle opposite the posterior petals. Legume oblong, subfalcate, turgid or slightly com-
pressed, several-seeded, 2-valved, tardily dehiscent, the thin tough woody valves thick-
ened on the margins into narrow wings, pulpy between the seeds. Seeds ovoid or slightly
obovoid, suspended by a long slender funicle; seed-coat thick, bony, brown and opaque,
of 3 layers; embryo surrounded by a thin layer of horny albumen; cotyledons ovate,
orange-colored, thick and fleshy, the radicle short, erect.
Gymnocladus, with two species, is confined to eastern North America and to central
China.
Gymnocladus is slightly astringent and purgative, and the detersive pulp surrounding
the seeds of the Asiatic species is used in China as a substitute for soap.
The generic name, from yv/j.v6s and K\d8os> relates to the stout branchlets destitute
of spray.
1. Gymnocladus dioicus K. Koch. Kentucky Coffee-tree. Mahogany.
Leaves l-3 long, 18'-24' wide, obovate, 5-9 pinnate, the pinnse 6-14-foliolate, covered
when they unfold with hoary tomentum except on the upper surface of the ovate acute
Fig. 556
leaflets, often mucronate, especially while young, cuneate or irregularly rounded at base,
pink at first, soon becoming bronze-green and lustrous, glabrous on the upper surface
with the exception of a few scattered hairs along the midrib, and at maturity thin, ob-
scurely veined, dark green above, pale yellow-green and glabrous below, with the ex-
ception of a few short hairs scattered along the narrow midrib, 2'-2' long and 1' wide, or
those replacing the lowest or occasionally the 2 lower pairs of pinnae sometimes twice ;is
large; turning bright clear yellow in the autumn before falling; petioles abruptly and con-
spicuously enlarged at base, at first hoary-tomentose, becoming glabrous at maturity;
stipules lanceolate or slightly obovate, glandular-serrate toward the apex, 3 ' long. Flowers:
inflorescence of the staminate tree 3 '-4' long, the lower branches usually 3 or 4-flowered;
inflorescence of the pistillate tree 10'- 12' long, the flowers on stout pedicels l'-2^' long or
twice to five times as long as those of the staminate flowers; flowers hoary-tomentose in the
bud; calyx f ' long, covered on the outer surface when the flowers open with pale hairs and
on the inner surface with hoary tomentum; petals keeled, pilose on the back, slightly
grooved, tomentose on the inner surface; anthers bright orange color; ovary hairy. Fruit
6'-10' long, l'-2' wide, dark red-brown, covered with a glaucous bloom, on stout stalks
l'-2' in length, remaining unopened on the branches through the winter; seeds sep-
arated by a thick layer of dark-colored sweet pulp, f ' long.
LEGL-MINOS.-E 607
A tree, 75-110 high, with a trunk 2-3 in diameter, usually dividing 10-15 from
the ground into 3 or 4 principal stems spreading slightly and forming a narrow round-
topped head, or occasionally sending up a tall straight shaft destitute of branches for 70-
80, and branchlets coated when they first appear with short dense pubescence faintly
tinged with red, bearing at their base the conspicuous orange-green obovate pubescent
bud-scales, \'-\' thick at the end of their first season, very blunt, dark brown, often slightly
pilose, marked by orange-colored lenticels, and roughened by the large pale broadly
heart-shaped leaf-scars displaying the ends of 3 or 4 conspicuous fibro-vascular bundles.
Bark of the trunk f '-!' thick, deeply fissured, dark gray tinged with red, and roughened by
small persistent scales. Wood heavy although' not hard, strong, coarse-grained, very
durable in contact with the soil, rich light brown tinged with red, with thin lighter colored
sap wood of 5 or 6 layers of annual growth; occasionally used in cabinet-making and for
fence-posts, rails, and in construction. The seeds were formerly used as a substitute
for coffee: a decoction of the fresh green pulp of the unripe fruit is used in homoeopathic
practice.
Distribution. Bottom-lands in rich soil; central and western New York and Franklin
County, Pennsylvania, through southern Ontario and southern Michigan to southeastern
Minnesota, northeastern and southern Iowa, southeastern South Dakota, eastern and
northeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, southwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma
(with isolated stations in Woods and Custer Counties and in the western parts of Cimarron
County) ; in Eastern Kentucky, and western and middle Tennessee; nowhere common.
Occasionally cultivated in the gardens and parks of the eastern United States, and of
northern and central Europe.
8. GLEDITSIA L.
Trees, with furrowed bark, slender terete slightly zigzag branchlets thickened at the
apex and prolonged by axillary buds, thick fibrous roots, the trunk and branches often
armed with stout simple or branched spines or abortive branchlets developed from supra-
axillary or adventitious buds imbedded in the bark. Winter-buds minute, 3 or 4 together,
superposed, the 2 or 3 lower without scales and covered by the scar left by the falling of
the petiole, the upper larger, nearly surrounded by the base of the petiole and covered by
small scurfy scales. Leaves long-petiolate, often fascicled in earlier axils, abruptly pin-
nate or bipinnate, the pinnae increasing in length from the base to the apex of the leaf,
the lowest sometimes reduced to single leaflets; deciduous; leaflets thin, their mar-
gins irregularly crenate, without stipels; stipules minute, caducous. Flowers regular,
polygamous, minute, green or white on short pedicels, in axillary or lateral simple or
fascicled racemes, with minute scale-like caducous bracts; calyx campanulate, lined with
the disk, 3-5-lobed, the narrow lobes nearly equal; petals as many as the lobes of the calyx,
nearly equal; stamens 6-10, inserted with the petals on the margin of the disk, exserted;
filaments free, filiform, erect; anthers uniform, much smaller and abortive in the pistillate
flower; ovary subsessile, rarely bicarpellary, rudimentary or in the staminate flower;
styles short; stigma terminal, more or less dilated, often oblique; ovules 2 or many, sus-
pended from the angle opposite the posterior petal. Legume compressed, many-seeded,
elongated, straight and indehiscent, or 1-3-seeded, ovoid and tardily dehiscent. Seeds
transverse, ovoid to suborbicular, flattened, attached by a long slender funicle; seed-coat
thin, crustaceous, light brown; embryo surrounded by a layer of horny orange-colored
albumen; cotyledons subfoliaceous, compressed; radicle short, erect, slightly exserted.
Gleditsia is confined to eastern North America, where three species occur, southwestern
Asia, China, Formosa, Japan, and west tropical Africa. It produces strong, durable, coarse-
grained wood. In Japan the pods are used as a substitute for soap.
The generic name is in honor of Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch (1714-1786), professor of
botany at Berlin.
608
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Legume linear-oblong, elongated, many-seeded, iridehiscent.
Legume 12'-18' long, with pulp between the seeds; ovary hoary- tomentose.
1. G. triacanthos (A,C).
Legume 4'-5' long, without pulp between the seeds. 2. G. texana (C).
Legume oval, oblique, 1-3-seeded, without pulp, tardily dehiscent; ovary glabrous.
3. G. aquatica (A, C).
1. Gleditsia triacanthos L. Honey Locust.
Leaves 7'-8' long, 18-28-foliolulate or sometimes bipinnate, with 4-7 pairs of pinnae,
those of the upper pair 4'-5' long, when they unfold hoary-tomentose, and at maturity
pubescent on the petiole and rachis, the short stout petiolules, and the under surface of
the midrib of the oblong-lanceolate leaflets, unequal at base, acute or slightly rounded
Fig. 557
at apex, remotely crenulate-serrate, dark green and lustrous above, dull yellow-green
below, l'-l|' long and \' wide; turning in the autumn pale clear yellow. Flowers
appearing in June when the leaves are nearly fully grown from the axils of leaves of pre-
vious years; the staminate in short many-flowered pubescent racemes 2'-2' long and
often clustered; the pistillate in slender graceful few-flowered usually solitary racemes
%%'-& long; calyx campanulate, narrowed at base, the acute lobes thickened, revolute
and ciliate on the margins, villose with pale hairs, rather shorter than and half as wide as
the erect acute petals; filaments pilose toward the base; anthers green; pistil rarely of 2
carpels, hoary-tomentose. Fruit 12'-18' long, dark brown, pilose and slightly falcate,
with straight thickened margins, 2 or 3 together in short racemes on stalks l'-l|' long,
their walls thin and tough, contracting in drying by a number of corkscrew twists, and
falling late in the autumn or early in winter; seeds oval, ' long, separated by thick suc-
culent pulp.
A tree, 75-140 high, with a trunk 2-3 or occasionally 5-6 in diameter, slender
spreading somewhat pendulous branches forming a broad open rather flat-topped head,
and branchlets marked by minute lenticels, at first light reddish brown and slightly puberu-
lous, soon becoming lustrous and red tinged with green, and in their second year greenish
brown and armed with stout rigid long-pointed simple or 3-forked spines at first red, and
bright chestnut-brown when fully grown, or rarely unarmed (var. inermis Pursh.). Bark
of the trunk \'-\' thick, divided by deep fissures into long narrow longitudinal ridges and
LEGUMINOS.E 609
roughened on the surface by small persistent scales. Wood hard, strong, coarse-grained,
very durable in contact with the ground, red or bright red-bro\vn, with thin pale sapwood
of 10-12 layers of annual growth; largely used for fence-posts and rails, for the hubs of
wheels, and in construction.
Distribution. Borders of streams and intervale lands, in moist fertile soil, usually
growing singly or occasionally covering almost exclusively considerable areas; less com-
monly on dry sterile gravelly hills; western slope of the Alleghany Mountains of Penn-
sylvania, westward through southern Ontario and southern Michigan to southeastern
Minnesota, southern Iowa, southeastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, eastern
Kansas, and Oklahoma to the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River (near Alva, Woods County)
and to creek valleys near Cache, Comanche County (G. W. Stevens), and southward to
northern Alabama, Mississippi and western Florida and to the valley of the Brazos River,
eastern Texas; and in the canon of Paloduro Creek near Canyon, Randall County,
northwestern Texas (E. J. Palmer); in Pennsylvania and West Virginia occasionally
on the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Mountains; attaining its largest size in the val-
leys of small streams in southern Indiana and Illinois; now often naturalized in the region
east of the Alleghany Mountains. The var. inermis, the prevailing form in Taney County,
southern Missouri.
Often cultivated as an ornamental and shade tree in all countries of temperate climates.
2. Gleditsia texana Sarg. Locust.
Leaves 6'-7' long, 12-22-foliolulate, with a slender rachis at first puberulous, ulti-
mately glabrous, or often bipinnate, usually with 6 or 7 pairs of pinnae, the lower pairs
frequently reduced to single large leaflets; leaflets oblong-ovate, often somewhat falcate,
Fig. 558
rounded or acute or apiculate at apex, obliquely rounded at base, finely crenately serrate,
thick and firm in texture, dark green and lustrous above, pale below, \'-\.' long, with a
short petiolule coated while young, like the base of the slender orange-colored midrib,
with soft pale hairs. Flowers appearing toward the end of April, the staminate dark
orange-yellow, in slender glabrous often clustered racemes lengthening after the flowers
begin to open and finally 3'-4' in length; calyx campanulate, with acute lobes thickened on
the margins, villose-pubescent and rather shorter and narrower than the puberulous
petals; stamens with slender filaments villose near the base and green anthers; pistillate
flowers unknown. Fruit 4 '-5' long, 1 ' wide, straight, much compressed, rounded and short-
pointed at apex, full and rounded at the broad base, thin-walled, dark chestnut-brown,
610
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
puberulous, slightly thickened on the margins, many-seeded, without pulp; seeds oval,
compressed, dark chestnut-brown, very lustrous, \' long.
A tree, 100-120 high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 2| in diameter, ascending and
spreading branches forming a narrow head, and comparatively slender more or less zigzag
branchlets roughened by numerous small round lenticels, light orange-brown when they
first appear, gray or orange-brown during their first year, ashy gray the following season,
and unarmed. Bark thin and smooth.
Distribution. Only in a single grove on the bottom-lands of the Brazos River, near
the town of Brazoria, Brazoria County, Texas.
3. Gleditsia aquatica Marsh. Water Locust.
Leaves 5 '-8' long, 12-20-foliolate, or bipinnate, with 3 or 4 pairs of pinnae; leaflets
ovate-oblong, usually rounded or rarely emarginate at apex, unequally cuneate at base,
Fig. 559
slightly and remotely crenate or often entire below T the middle, glabrous with the exception
of a few hairs on the short stout petiolule, dull yellow-green and lustrous on the upper
surface, dark green on the lower surface, about 1' long and %'-%' wide. Flowers appearing
in May and June after the leaves are fully grown on short stout purple puberulous pedicels,
in slender racemes 3 '-4' long; calyx-tube covered with orange-brown pubescence, the lobes
narrow, acute, slightly pilose on the two surfaces, as long as but narrower than the green
erect petals rounded at apex; filaments hairy toward the base; anthers large, green; ovary
long-stipitate, glabrous. Fruit fully grown in August, pendent in graceful racemes,
obliquely ovoid, long-stalked, crowned with a short stout tip, thin, l'-2' long, 1' broad, with-
out pulp, its valves thin, tough, papery, bright chestnut-brown, lustrous and somewhat
thickened on the margins; seeds 1 or rarely 2 or 3, flat, nearly orbicular, orange-brown,
^' in diameter.
A tree, 50-60 high, with a short trunk 2-2| in diameter, usually dividing a few feet
from the ground into stout spreading often contorted branches forming a wide irregular
flat-topped head, and glabrous orange-brown branchlets becoming in their second year
gray or reddish brown, marked by occasional large pale lenticels, and armed with usually
flattened simple or short-branched straight or falcate sharp rigid spines 3 '-5' long, about
\' broad at the base, and dark red-brown and lustrous. Bark \'-% thick, smooth, dull
gray or reddish brown, and divided by shallow fissures into small plate-like scales. Wood
heavy, very hard and strong, coarse-grained, rich bright brown tinged with red, with thick
light clear yellow sapwood of about 40 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Eastern South Carolina to Florida, through the coast region of the Gulf
LEGUMINOS.E 611
states to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, and northward through western Louisiana
and southern Arkansas to northwestern Mississippi, middle Kentucky and Tennessee,
the bottoms of the Mississippi at La Pointe, Saint Charles County, Missouri, western and
southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana; rare east of the Mississippi River and only in
deep river swamps; very abundant and of its largest size westward on rich bottom-lands;
in Louisiana and Arkansas often occupying extensive tracts submerged during a con-
siderable part of the year.
9. PARKINSONIA L.
Trees or shrubs, with smooth thin bark and terete branches often armed with simple
or 3-forked spines. Leaves abruptly bipinnate, alternate or fascicled from earlier axils,
short-petiolate, the rachis short and spinescent, with 2-4 secondary elongated rachises
bearing numerous minute opposite entire leaflets without stipels; stipules short, persistent
and spinescent, or caducous. Flowers perfect on thin elongated jointed pedicels from
the axils of minute caducous bracts, in slender axillary solitary or fascicled racemes: