GLEAJs^IXGS AND OKIGIXAL MEMORANDA. 
43 
•■ 'v»-V-i 
304. Acacia oxYCEDiirs. Sieler. [alias A. tnxifolia Loddiges.) A handsome busli from the 
soutliem i)arts of Australia. Flowers 
in bright yellow spikes, appearing in 
January and February. (Fig. 156.) 
Apparently a common plant in Van Die- 
men's Land, and the eoutli-eastern districts of 
the Australian comment. Sir Thomas Mitchell 
fomid it on Mount William in 1836 ; tlie Blue 
V 
Slountaius are named by others, and Mr. Back- 
house notices it among the Tasmannian plants 
which struck him with their heauty. He speaks 
of it as heing in flower on the 7lh of Septem- 
ber, amoiig the earliest iuJIcatiouB of spring, 
and again in April : 
"On the 15th of the fourth month," he 
says, ** we held a meeting with some sawyers, 
in their huts, at a place called the King's Pits, 
on the ascent of Mount Wellington, at an eleva- 
tion of about 2000 feet, and about four miles 
from the town. The forest among which they 
are residing is very lofty : many of the trees 
are clear of branches for upwards of 100 feet. 
It caught fire a few months ago, and some of 
the men narrow^ly escaped- The trees are 
• blackened to the top, but are beginning to 
The brushwood is very thick in some of these forests. A shower of snow fell 
while we were at the place. Acacia oxycedrus^ ten feet high^ was in flower on the ascent of the mountain. Tliis, along 
with numerous shrubs of other kinds, fonned impervious thickets in some places ; while, in others, Epacris impressa 
displayed its brilliant blossoms of crimson and of rose-colour.** 
shoot again from their charred stems. 
In cultivation it forms a stout shrub, with hard, stiff, 
bright green phyll odes, having three strong ribs terminating 
in a fine point. In form these phyllodes are variable, 
sometimes being naiTowly ovate-lanceolate, and somewhat 
falcate, or even linear, or so short and broad as to be almost 
ovate ; A. mcesta of the Botanical Register may even be a 
peculiarly broad variety. From A. verticillata the Oxycedrus 
is distiuguished by its phyllodes having three or four distinct 
stout ribs, and not being whorled, its much stouter and 
more erect habit, and its larger and finer flower spikes. 
305. Acacia diffusa. Ker. (a/m^A. pros- 
trata Zoddiges.) A handsome leguminous bush^ 
from Van Piemen's Land, Avith numerous balls of 
.^'d^V/V 
bright 
yellow flowers 
appearing 
in midwinter. 
(Fig. 157.) 
Although this has naturally a trailing mode of growth, 
yet it readily lends itself to the art of the gardener, and, by 
a little management, wiH assume the form of a close com- 
pact bush. It is exti'emely common in Van Diemen's Land \ 
varying greatly in the size and shape of the phyllodes (leaves), 
and in the length of the flower-stalks, which are sometimes 
nearly sessile, and sometimes on long stalks as in our figure. 
Tlie phyllodes have a single rib, running fi'om end to end, 
and terminating in a hard spine ; and, near their base, 
often appears a smaU oval gland, but this is frecjuently missing. Wlien dry or old the phyllodes seem to have several 
veins lying irregularly by the side of the midrib ; but in reality this appearance is produced by the shrinking of the 
parenchyma, and the seeming veins are merely wrinkles. Although there is no difference whatever between the Acacia 
m-yj^^^ ^. 
