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Description of several New or Rare Plants which have lately 
Flowered in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chiefly in 
the Royal Botanic Garden. By Dr Grauam, Professor of 
Botany. 
March 10, 1842. 
Acacia diptera, Lindl. 
A. diptera; glauca, capitulis in pedunculo solitariis ; stipulis minimis, 
ciliatis, caducis ; phyllodiis bifariam decurrentibus, velutinis, apice 
incuryo-mucronatis, nervo unico marginem superiorem eglandulosam 
arcte approximato ; internodiis linearibus, longissimis. 
DescriptTion.—Stem much branched from the bottom (the whole plant in 
the specimen described being about 4 feet high), Branches long, diffu- 
sed, winged in two rows, internodes long, linear. Stipules very minute, 
soft, ciliated, deciduous. Phyllodia decurrent, densely covered with 
short soft hairs, having a single nerve passing near their upper edge, 
and terminated by an incurved soft mucro, entirely without gland or 
tooth, excepting the mucro at the extremity ; capitula solitary on short 
peduncles. Flowers of uniform pale yellow, and everywhere glabrous. 
Calyx 5-cleft, segments ovate. Corolla twice as long as the calyx, 5- 
partite, segments ovate, concave. Stamens thrice as long as the corolla ; 
anthers of rather deeper yellow than the rest of the flower. Pisti/ scarce- 
ly longer than the stamens ; stigma minute, capitate; germen slightly 
inkish. 
We received this plant, native of Swan River Settlement, at the Royal 
Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, from the Botanic Garden, Glasgow, as 
A. platyptera, in 1840, and it flowered sparingly in the greenhouse in the 
course of the second winter after. 
Acacia platyptera is precisely similar to this in habit, but easily distin- 
guished by its bright green not glaucous colour, by the hairs with which 
it is clothed being less uniform, and some of them more harsh; by the 
stipules being subspinescent; by the phyllodia having their solitary 
nerve near the centre ; by their haying a gland on their upper edge simi- 
lar to that in Acacia alata ; by the mucro with which they are terminat- 
ed being recurved, and by the capitula being smaller and of deeper yel- 
low. Acacia alata, also nearly allied, is glaucous, the internodes are 
short, and the mucro terminating the phyllodia is straight, and much 
more rigid and pungent than in either of the others. I have native 
specimens of A. diptera from Mr Gould. They differ from the cultivat- 
ed plant only in being much more nearly glabrous. 
Brownea coccinea, Jacqu. 
B. coccinea, foliolis 2-5 jugis, ovali-oblongis, acuminatis, floribus fascicu- 
latis, ramis petiolisque glabris. ‘ 
Brownea coccinea, Jacqu. Amer. 194, t. 121.— Willd. Sp. Pl. 3. 715.— 
Pers. Synops. 2 236.—D0., Prodr. 2. 477—Spreng. Syst. Veget. 3. 
75 
DescriptTion.— Trunk (in the specimen described, an old plant, 10 feet 
high) erect, brown and rough with the dark desquamating cuticle, 
branched; branches pendulous, twigs glaucous and warted. Jcaves al- 
ternate, abruptly pinnated, pendulous ; petiole (3-9 inches long) slender, 
green and shining ; pinn in 2-5 pairs, sub-opposite, oblong, acuminate, 
een and glabrous on both sides, subcoriaceous, the most distant (6-8 
inches long, 2-3} inches broad) the largest, generally smaller towards 
the plant, midrib prominent below, flat above, veins oblique, curved, and 
terminating before reaching the margins. Flower-bud large globular 
terminal or subsessile in the axil of the petioles incased with large, 
round, rose-coloured scales, which are villous on the outside, shining 
within. Flowers fascicled, of uniform, brilliant, vermilion rose colour, 
pendulous, the terminal ones expanding first, and the others gradually 
downwards, Ca/ya coloured like all the parts of the flower ; tube long, 
