IO4 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



Common in the barren parts of the Deccan. Often gregarious, 

 forming formidable thorny thickets (-B.). ^ have not seen it, but am 

 consoled by finding it called, by a botanist who had, " frutex horri- 

 dissimus." It is the bufialo thorn of Ceylon. 



(c) Large climbing shrubs with round heads of flowers in 

 panicles. 



6. A. concinna. Prickles numerous, hooked, pinnae 4 to 8 

 pair, leaflets 12 to 25 pair, oblong, oblique, smooth, stipules 

 and bracts ovate cordate, panicles very downy, flowers yellow 

 or white, fragrant, pod strap-shaped, thick and succulent, 

 contracted between the seeds. Cliikakai. 



Common in the Konkan and Ghauts. The legumes are sold and 

 used as soap, &c. 



A. Intsia, stout and straggling, with small curved prickles, pinnae 

 and leaflets much like the above, flowers white, pod smooth, dark red 

 or purple, very thin. Nitdri. Dapjli. Cambay and Ankaleshwar 

 (D.). Konkan and Ghauts (#.). H. has 2 vars., one of which is D.'s 

 * A. ccesia, pinnae and leaflets more numerous, but not so many as 

 the next. 



7. A, pennata. Thorns straight or slightly curved, pinnae 

 8 to 20 pair, leaflets 30 to 50 pair, narrow, linear, smooth, 

 flowers yellow, pod straight, strap-shaped, thin, smooth or with 

 reddish down. Shembi. 



Common in the Konkan. The bark is used for dyeing nets. 



Note. The so-called Acacia tree in England ia Robinia pseudo- 

 acacia. 



Note. There are a number of Australian species of Acacia, which 

 have no leaflets, but only a flattened and enlarged petiole, called a 

 phyllode. This may easily be taken for a simple narrow leaf. Some 

 of these phyllodineous Acacias are said to have been introduced in 

 S. India. 



61. ALBIZZIA. 



1. A. lebbek. Pinnae 2 to 4 pair, leaflets 4 to 9 pair, oblong, 

 very obtuse, unequal-sided, flowers white, very fragrant, in 

 large long-stalked heads and irregularly racemed ; pod nearly a 

 foot long, smooth, straw-coloured, seeds flat oval, with a horse- 

 shoe depression. Siras,farari, liareri. 



Common in the Konkan and elsewhere. Widely spread over the 

 globe, except in Europe. 



This is the Sirisha of Sanscrit poetry : 



" Fair maids, the chosen of their hearts to please, 

 Entwine their ears with sweet Sirisha flowers." 



Sakuntala (Sir M. Williams' transl.). 



