NAT. ORDER. 



Legumnosce. 



ACACIA VERA. GUM AEABIC TREE. 



Class POLYGAMIA. Oldcr MONCECIA. 



Gen. Char. Floivers, polyamous. Cali/a:, four to five toothed. Pe- 



ials, four to five, sometimes free, and sometimes joined into a 



corolla. Stamens, variable, 

 ^e. Char. Branches and leaves, glabrous. Flowers, usually twin 



yellow. Branches and spines, red. 



This is a most elegant climbing sfn-iih, with long, weak, diffuse, 

 interweaving branches, clinging and supporting themselves by means 

 of their very short, recurved, weak prickles, which are inconspicuous 

 to the feye, though at once perceptible to the touch. The jmcklcs are 

 found on eveiy part of the plant, except the peduncles, and secondary 

 rachiscs of the leaves ; they are also generally worn off the old 

 branches and stems. These, when old, are pale brown or grey, as 

 well as smooth and round ; the young ones are strongly sulcated and 

 angular, and more or less pubescent with short, wooly, fulvous, glan- 

 dular hairs ; foliage most delicate and lovely ; the leaves resembling 

 gracefully curved or drooping plumes of feathers, of a fine, bright, pe- 

 culiar yellow-gi-een, six to eight inches long, and one to two broad ; 

 stipules very minute, narrow-minute, ovate, erect, and vithering ; ])c- 

 tioles geniculate at the base, the part below the elbow two lines long, 

 angular and slender, the upper side channelled with an oblong, hol- 

 low, boat-shaped gland a little above the elbow ; copiously clothed 

 with short, glandular, fulvous pubescence, and fimiished with recurved, 

 Vol. IV.— 148. 



