_A large tree with a smooth dark bark, cracking in thick lateral plates on old trees. Long, branching thorns growing in clusters out of the trunk and on the branches. Smooth, shining brown twigs and prominent U-shaped, alternate leaf-scars. There are no terminal buds, and the lateral ones are superposed, inconspicuous, rounded, and partly concealed in the stem. The fruit is a large, pea-like pod, often hanging on the trees through the winter._ [Illustration: HONEY LOCUST _Gleditsia triacanthos_ Page 132 ] The honey locust is a beautiful tree with a large trunk and wide, loosely spreading branches. It is particularly interesting in winter on account of the apparent absence of buds along the stems. But for the rich brown color of the stems they might be thought dead until a cut with a knife in the stem over the leaf-scars shows the little tender buds tucked away out of sight. It is interesting, too, to find thorns which are long enough to have little thorns branching from them. A straight thorn seems formidable enough even on a rose stem, but a thorn some ten inches long with eight thorns branching from it, each varying from half an inch to two inches long, and this but one of a cluster of thorns, keeps the trunk of the honey locust sacred from climbing boys and from browsing cattle. The honey locust is more effective than a barbed wire for fencing. The fruit is in the form of a flat, crooked reddish brown pod from seven to eighteen inches long. These pods are often twisted, and are carried easily by the wind over the top of the snow, and young locusts are propagated in this way at a great distance from the parent tree. Beer has been made by fermenting the inner pulp of fresh pods, but it is more of an experiment than a customary practice. The wood of the honey locust is hard, strong, and durable when it is placed in contact with the soil; it is used for posts and rails and for making the hubs of wheels. The generic name, _Gleditsia_, was given to it in honor of Gleditsch, a German botanist; and the specific name, _triacanthos_ (three-thorned), refers to the branching thorns. The honey locust is not native in New England, although it is found growing commonly. Young trees spring up from the seeds of cultivated trees, and in this way it has spread and increased its range. It is found growing wild from Pennsylvania south and west. There are thornless varieties of this tree which are often cultivated. [Sidenote: Yellowwood _Cladrastis lutea_] _A small tree, 20 to 50 feet high, with a smooth dark gray bark. The stems are smooth and brown, with light colored conspicuous leaf-scars in a circle around the subpetiolar buds. The buds are brown and very hairy, each scale being covered with soft brown hairs. Pod-like fruit, about two inches long._