Ne^lunia.] XL. LEGUMINOS.^. 301 



Pinnse 3 or 3 pairs ; leaflets 20 to SO pairs, mostly 3 to 5 lines long; gland 



large, depressed below the lowest pair of pinnse. Stipules and bracteoles 



very much smaller than iu N. gracilis and very deciduous. Peduncles very 



short, rarely exceeding | iu. Flowers small, all with 5 stameus only, with 



very few or scarcely any of the neuter ones at the base of the head. Ovules 



always 2 only. Pod nearly orbicular, 3, 4, or rarely 5 lines diameter, with a 

 single seed. 



W. A^stra,Ua. XJpper Yictaria river, f. 3fuelier; Gulf of Carpentaria, Landshoroifgh, 

 Eenne, 



.Queensland, Bowman, 



90. ACACIA, Willd. 



(Vachellia, IF, and Am, ; TetracheHQs, Lekm. ; Chithonantlius, lelim.) 



Sepals .5, 4, or 3, free or united (wanting in A. Ilue^elii ?ind A. squamata). 

 Petals as many, free or united (wanting in A, squaw ata). Stamens indefi- 

 nite, usually very numerous, free or slightly connected at the very base. Pod 

 linear or oblong, flat or nearly cylindrical, straight, falcate or variously 

 twisted, opening in 2 valves or indehiscent. Seeds more or less flattened, 

 usually marked in the centre of each face with an oval or horseshoe-shaped 

 depression or opaque spot or ring, sometimes very obscure. Funicle usually 

 thickened into a fleshy aril under or round the seed.— Trees, shrubs, climbers, 



or rarely undershrubs, with or without prickles or stipular spines. Leaves 

 twi'no v,;»„„i. 1 1 . .1 1 n 1- ..__ _„ ,i:i„i.«,i «^4-,',.i.. Plowers 



en poly- 



twice 



usu 



-e pinnate or reduced to a simple phyllodium or dilated petiole, 

 ^lly yellow or white, in globular heads or cylindrical spikes, oft 



gamous. 



■ 



A very large genus, dispersea over llie warmer regions of the gbbe, and in Australia the 

 most numerous in species of all Pha-nogamous genera. Of the Australian species, one only, 

 ^•Famesiana, is common to tl^e warmer regions of the New and the Old World, the re- 

 mainder are all eudenilc. Of these hv far the greater numher belong to the phylloduieous 

 series, which is entirely Australian, with the exception of a very few from New Caledonia 

 W>e Indian Archipelago, auJ the Pacific Islands, none of which can he specifically ideutihed 

 «'tli any Australian ones, although very near some of the tropical species. Acacias iire also 

 ^ generally distributed over every part of Australia, but are entirely absent from Ivew 



Taken as a whole, the genus is the most marked of those which have been dismembered 



from the Linnsean "" ' ' ■ ■•• ■• ;.».-i f.— r-^^ on^l its allies bv the free 



stamens, and 



ttithstandiiig consiaerable dilterences m t(ie nowers auu mun^ ci.""-? - — ■-.— ' 

 " ^ teen found impossible to establish' upon these dltFcrences any defimte sections, even 

 «mong those species where both flowers and fruit are well lcuown._and in the m^onty of 



Z' r°^^times belong to species widely different in foliage and even m no« er. l nuv o 

 ^"^erefore on each of thl three occasions vvhen I have gone through the genus in detail with 

 • 'arge number of specimens before me, in vaiu sought for any better mode of distributing 

 the species than in Series, founded chiefly upon foliage and inflorescence. There are only 

 ;ne or two species in which the cylindrical sjike appears to pass into the globiJar head and 

 ^he venation of the phyllodia is nearly, though not quite, as constant. Jlf'e glnids on the 

 «PPer edge of the phyllodia and on the common petiole in the compound leaf seldom afford 

 Jjen a specific distinction, and the bracts in the flower-head still less so, and I have there- 

 f^reinthe descriptions seldom mentioned them. The bracts are almost always narrow, 

 «°sely packed in with the flowers, and more or less dilated at the end, somet^imcs quite pel- 

 ^^i generally the outer ones of each head are flatter, the inner ones more slender and pro- 



