405 



2. ROBINIA HISPIDA. 



ROSE ACACIA. 



This genus comprises plants of the hardy deciduous tiec and 

 shrub sorts, with tender kinds for the stove. 



It belongs to the class and order Diaddphia Dccamlria, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Papilionacea or Legiwiinosa: 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one-leafed perianth, small, 

 bell-shaped, four-cleft; the three lower toothlets more slender; the 

 upper fourth toothlet wider, scarcely cmarginate to the naked eye, 

 all equal in length: the corolla papilionaceous: standard roundish, 

 larger, spreading, blunt: wings oblong, ovate, free, with a very short 

 blunt appendix; keel almost semiorbicular, compressed, blunt, the 

 length of the wings: the stamina have diadelphous filaments, (simple 

 and nine-cleft) ascending at top: anthers roundish: the pistillum is 

 a cylindrical, oblong germ: style filiform, bent upwards: stigma 

 villose in front at the top of the style: the pericarpiuin is a legume 

 large, compressed, gibbous, long: the seeds few, kidney-form. 



The species cultivated are : 1. Jv. Pseud-Acacia, False or Common 

 Acacia; 2. R. hispida. Rose Acacia, or Rol)inia; 3. R. Caragana, 

 Siberian Abrupt-leaved Robinia; 4. iv. frutcsceiis, Shrubby Robinia; 

 5. R. pygmaa. Dwarf Robinia; 6. R. spiima. Thorny Roiymia; 7- R- 

 vio/acca, Ash-leaved Robmia; 8. R. mitis. Smooth Indian Robinia. 



It grows very fast whilst young, so that in a few years from seed, 

 the plants rise to eight or ten feet high, and it is not uncommon to 

 see shoots of this tree six or eight feet long in one summer: the 

 branches are armed with strong crooked thorns: ihc Icallets eight 

 or ten pairs, ovate, bright green, entire, sessile: the llowers come 

 out from the side of the branches in pretty long bunches, hanging 

 down like those of Laburnum: each flower on a slender pedicel, 



