Addisonia 13 



(Plate 199) 

 ACACIA ARMATA 

 Kangaroo Thorn 



Native oj southern Australia 

 Family Mimosaceae Mimosa Family 



Acacia armata R. Br.; Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2. 5: 463. 1813. 

 Acacia paradoxa DC. Cat. Hort. Monsp. 74. 1813. 



A plant of dense habit, with the breadth usually greater than the 

 height, and the foliage of a deep rich green. It makes an excellent 

 plant for the cool conservatory, and is one of the best for pot culture, 

 flowering when comparatively small, its rich green foliage making a 

 fine contrast with the bright yellow of its blossoms. It is much 

 grown for the Easter display. This acacia has been in cultivation 

 a long time, having been introduced in 1803 by Peter Good. There 

 are fine specimens of this, planted out, in the central display house, 

 range 2, New York Botanical Garden, and it is from one of these 

 that the illustration has been prepared. 



It is said to make a good hedge-plant in regions where it may be 

 grown in the open, and has been employed to reclaim sand dunes. 



The kangaroo thorn is a dense shrub of widely spreading habit, 

 the branches somewhat hairy, and bearing stipular thorns, about a 

 quarter of an inch long, at the base of the phyllodes. The ascending 

 phyllodes are unequally elliptic or elliptic-ovate, a half an inch to 

 an inch long and a quarter of an inch to a little more wide; they are a 

 rich dark green, apiculate at the apex, with one nerve, nearer the 

 upper margin, and several lateral nerves arising therefrom. The 

 globose flower-heads are a quarter to three sixteenths of an inch in 

 diameter, and are borne solitary on stalks three eighths to three 

 quarters of an inch long. The sepals and petals are five, the former 

 about half as long as the latter. The pods are straight or somewhat 

 curved, one and a half to two inches long and three sixteenths to a 

 quarter of an inch wide. The seeds are oblong and placed longi- 

 tudinally. 



George; V. Nash. 



Explanation op Platk. Fig. 1. — Flowering branch. Fig. 2. — Flower, X 4. 

 Fig. 3.— Fruit. Fig. 4.— Seed. 



