FALSE ACACIA 165 



turning red and brown, and often leaving the rachis, 

 which has a large insertion, bare on the tree for weeks. 

 Leaflets 15 25, shortly petiolate, long ovate-lanceolate, 

 5 15 x 3 6 cm. in length ; acuminate, entire or with 

 one or two glandular teeth at the base, glabrous, except 

 on the midribs below, which, like the petiolules and 

 margin, are finely ciliate ; dark green above, paler beneath. 

 Venation pinnate-looped and reticulate. 



(ii) Leaves stipulate. 



[The stipules may be deciduous, or minute, and care is 

 necessary to observe the scar, &c.; see p. 161.] 



(a) Stipules usually as lateral spines ; buds 

 burned in the base of petiole; leaflets 

 11 25, thin and bright green, entire. 



Robinia pseudacacia, L. False Acacia (Fig. 37). 

 Large tree, with spreading delicate foliage, easily recog- 

 nised by the usually spinose stipules and buried buds. 

 Leaves long, 10 30 cm., rather tufted, with slender rachis 

 and distinct pulvinus and pulvinuli. Leaflets 11 21, on 

 short petiolules, oblong or elliptic, entire, obtuse or acute, 

 or even slightly emarginate and mucronate ; texture thin 

 and soft, bright green, slightly glaucous and bluish below, 

 glabrous; faintly silky-pubescent when young, 2 4 x 1 

 2'5 cm. Stipular spines strong, sharp and compressed, 

 especially on the long shoots, and persistent : stipels 

 minute, subulate, and deciduous. Autumn leaves yellow. 



Venation pinnate-looped, and faintly reticulate. About 

 half-a-dozen slender secondaries come off at open angles 

 on either side of the midrib; they then curve forward, 

 and loop below the margin, or fade into a delicate net- 

 work. Tertiaries numerous but extremely fine, leaving 

 the outer sides of the secondaries at acute angles and 



