694 PLANTS OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 



A. OBTUSATA, Sieb. B. Fl. ii. 366. 



■^j 



(Plate XXIII.) 



The following is an amended description : — A tall shrub, quite 

 glabrous, branchlets angular. Phyllodia exceedingly variable in 

 length and shape, from 1 to 4 inches long, and from 1 to 6 lines 

 broad, narrotv-lanceohUe or oblanceolate, spathulate, much narrowed 

 towards the base, straight or slightly falcate, very obtuse ov almost 

 acute, gland mostly present below the middle on the upper margin ; 

 1-nerved, the nerve clostr to the ujyper than the lotvfr margin, 

 margins thickened nerve-like, veinlets inconspicuous. Racemes 

 about half as long as the phyllodes, with from six to twelve heads ■ 

 of flowers, mostly 5-merous, under 30 flowers in each head. 

 Calyx turbinate, sepals thick, obtuse, spathulate, ciliate, half or | 

 as long as the corolla, at first united but readily sepai'ating when 

 fully out. Petals glabrous, ojte7i ribbed. Pistil glabrous. Pod 

 flat, almost ahvays straight, ivith only the slightest tendency to curve, 

 glabrous, margins thickened and parallel, 3 to Jf inches long and. 5 

 lines broad, itnpress of the seed proininent on the outside. Seed 

 oblong, longitudinal, J unicle filiform to the one small fold and then 

 thickened into a smcdl boat-shaped axil under the seed. 



Hctb. — Blue Mountains ; Barber's Creek (H. Rumsay) ; and 

 southern coast range to Victoria. 



This species was described early in this century from flowering 

 specimens only, and as in the case of many other Acacias, the 

 pods and seeds have only been collected within the last few years. 

 As will be seen above and in the plate, the essential parts hitherto 

 wanting in this particular species are here recorded for the first 

 time ; and in addition there is figured a series showing the 

 extx'eme variability of the phyllodes and also other important 

 parts necessary for comparison with its congeners. 



It will also be noted that the descriptions here given of some 

 of the parts differ from those of previous authors, but the 

 differences, although important, and the result of an examina- 

 tion of a large number of specimens, are yet in themsehes, I 

 think, not sufficient to justify the recognition of any new varieties. 



