Triple-thorned Acacia, or Honey-loof: A genus of the dicoccia order, belonging to the polygama class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 33d order, Lomentaceae. The Gleditsia hermaphrodite calyx is quadrifid; the corolla tetrapetalous; the filamina fix, one pistil and legumen. The male calyx triphyllous; the corolla tripetalous, with six stamens. The female calyx is pentaphyllous; the corollo pentapetalous; one pistil and legumen. There are two species.

1. The triacanthos, a native of Virginia and Pennsylvania, is of an upright growth, and its trunk is guarded by thorns of three or four inches in length in a remarkable manner. These thorns have also others coming out of their sides at nearly right angles; their colour is red. The branches are smooth, and of a white colour. These are likewise armed with red thorns, that are proportionally smaller; they are of several directions, and at the ends of the branches often stand single. The young shoots of the preceding summer are perfectly smooth, of a reddish green, and retain their leaves often until the middle of November. Although there is a peculiar oddity in the nature and position of the spines, yet the leaves constitute the greatest beauty of these trees; they are doubly pinnated, and of a delightful shining green. The pinnated leaves, that form the duplication, do not always stand opposite by pairs on the middle rib; the pinnae of which they are composed are small and numerous; no less than 10 or 11 pair belong to each of them; and as no less than four or five pair of small leaves are arranged along the middle rib, the whole compound leaf consists often of more than 200 pinnae of this fine green colour: They fit close, and spread open in fine weather; though during bad weather they will droop, and their upper surfaces nearly join, as if in a sleeping state. The flowers are produced from the sides of the young branches in July: They are a greenish catkin, and make little show; though many are succeeded by pods, that have a wonderful effect; for these are exceedingly large, more than a foot, sometimes a foot and a half in length, and two inches in breadth, and of a nut-brown colour when ripe; so that the effect they occasion, when hanging on the sides of the branches, may easily be guessed.—There is a variety of this species, with fewer thorns, smaller leaves, and oval pods. It has nearly the resemblance of the other; though the thorns being not so frequent, and the pods being smaller, each containing only one seed, this fortifies that singular effect which the other produces by them.

These trees are easily propagated. We receive the seeds from America in the spring, which keep well in the pods, and are for the most part good. They generally arrive in February; and, as soon as possible after, they should be sown in a well-sheltered warm border of light sandy earth. If no border is to be found that is naturally so, it may be improved by applying drift sand, and making it fine. The seeds should be sown about half an inch deep; and they will for the most part come up the first spring. If the summer should prove dry, they must be constantly watered; and if shade could be afforded them in the heat of the day, they would make stronger plants by the autumn. A careful attention to this article is peculiarly requisite; for as the ends of the branches are often killed, if the young plant has not made some progress, it will be liable to be wholly destroyed by the the winter's frost, without protection: And this renders the sowing the seeds in a warm border, under an hedge, in a well sheltered place necessary; for there these shrubs will endure our winters, even when seedlings, and so will require no farther trouble; nay, though the tops should be nipped, they will shoot out again lower, and will soon overcome it. It will be proper to let them remain two years in the seed-bed before they are planted out in the nursery. The spring is the best time for the work. Their distances should be one-foot by two; the rows should be dug between every winter; and, being weeded in summer, here they may remain, with no other particular care, until they are set out to remain. These trees are late in the spring before they exhibit their leaves, but keep shooting long in the autumn.

2. The other species is the inermis, the stem of which is unarmed or without thorns. It is a native of South America, and in this country requires to be kept in a stove.