21 



PLATE 244. 



ACACIA PENNATA, Willd. (Fl. Cap. Vol. ii., Page 283). 

 Natural Order, LEGUMINOS.E. 



A climbing or rambling shrub with white flowers. Stems slender, flexuous, 

 branching. Bark green. Branches terete or striate, glabrous, younger portions 

 only finely pubescent, armed with stout, recurved prickles which are green at base, 

 and brown in upper portion. Leaves abruptly bipinnate, exstipulate, common 

 petiole 3-~> inches long, armed with prickles like the stern and branches, swollen 

 at base, with an ovate or oblong gland above the swelling, and a smaller globose 

 one at base of the terminal pair of pinnae, young ones pubescent, older glabrous; 

 pinnge in 5-9 opposite pairs their petioles striate, pubescent, 8 to 20 jugate, un- 

 armed. Leaflets 15 to 40- jugate, subsessile, linear-oblong, acute at apex, rounded 

 and very oblique at base, glabrous, 4 to 6 lines long, 1 to 2 lines wide, often 

 minutely ciliate, the lowest pair often very minute. Inflorescence in axillary and 

 terminal panicles. Heads globose. Calyx gamosepalous, 5-fid, pubescent, lobes 

 acute, shorter than tube. Corolla gamopetalous, a little longer than calyx, lobes 

 acuminate ; pubescent. Stamens numerous, more than twice as long as corolla. 

 Anthers ovate, minute, tipped with a stipitate globose gland. Ovary stipitate, 

 pubescent; style filiform, equalling stamens, not swollen; stigma truncate, minute. 

 Legume strongly compressed, flat, papery, 6 to 12 seeded, 4 to 7 inches long, f to 

 1 inch wide. Seeds dark brown, shining, compressed, oval, 5 lines long, 3 lines 

 wide. 



Habitat : NATAL : Coast lands. Congella, near Durban, 100 feet alt. January, 

 Wood 8022. 



This plant comes very near to A. Kraussiana, Meisn, and is very similar in 

 habit to that plant, but the prickles are larger and more abundant, the leaflets 

 smaller, differently shaped and more numerous. It is quite likely that the plants 

 have been confused with each other, especially as they are often found in close 

 proximity. A specimen in the Government Herbarium (Wood No. 4469) gathered 

 near Weenen, and bearing the name of the plant here described appears to be 

 either a variety of it or another species, the leaflets are very similar, but the 

 legumes are shorter, and prickles not so numerous. 



Fig. 1, flower; 2, stamen with gland; 3, ovary, style and stigma; 4, legume 

 natural size ; except Fig. 4, all enlarged. 



