& 



WITNESS THE SPRIGHTLY JOT, WHEN AUGHT UNKNOWN 

 STRIKES THE QUICK SENSE, AND WAKES EACH ACTIVE POWER 

 TO BRISKER MEASURES. 



Jlkenside. 



AND ALL ABOUT GREW EVERT SORT OP FLOWER 



TO WHICH SAD LOVERS WERE TRANSFORMED OF YORE. 



Spencer, 



ACACIA. 

 Robinia. 



Robinia, commemorates John Robin, botanist to Henry 

 the Fourth, and Louis the Thirteenth, of France. He was 

 found fault with for his selfish love of flowers; the more 

 curious kinds of which, he would rather destroy, than share 

 with his friends. 



His son, Vespasian Robin, and De Theis, introduced 

 into the French gardens, from American seeds, that species 

 of Robinia, called Pseudo Jlcacia, by Tournefort; who, under 

 that name, founds the present genus. 



Jlcacia, is an ancient name, (Gr. /.*/.ix) derived from 

 the Greek XX i, a point, or x*s, to point or sharpen, in re- 

 ference to its thorny habit. 



The Rose Acacia, R. Hispida, or Hairy Robinia, is a 

 native of America, particularly of the mountains of Virginia 

 and Carolina. It is a very ornamental shrub, with copious, 

 large, pink-coloured papilionaceous blossoms, enhanced, like 

 the Moss Rose, by the bristly covering of the stalks and 

 calyx. The leaves pinnate, with an odd leaflet, like the 

 common locust. It has no thorns. There is a taller, and 

 less hisped variety. 



The Pseudo Jlcacia, or common locust, is also a na- 

 tive of North America, from Canada to Carolina: and, in 

 the months of May and June, it is laden with bunches of 

 white sweet-scented flowers, resembling those of the labur- 

 num in size and position. The foliage is of a beautiful light 

 green, consisting of many elliptical, opposite or alternate, 

 stalked leaflets. It is a large and handsome tree, of quick 

 growth; beginning, from the third year, to convert its sap 

 into perfect wood, which is of so fine a grain, and so hard, 

 as to be substituted by turners for the box, in many sorts of 

 light work. The branches are liable to be shivered off by 

 autumnal storms. 



There is a very thorny species of Robinia, with yellow 

 flowers, a native of Siberia, as also of Pekin, in China: in 

 the latter place, it is frequently fixed with clay on the tops 

 of walls, to keep off intruders. This R. Spinosa, or Thorny 

 Robinia, is a shrub, much branched, and with long thorns, 

 formed by the hardened foot-stalks. It is quite hardy in our 



gardens, and would be excellent for hedges. The leaflets 

 are oblong, wedge-shaped, hardly an inch in length. 



The Oriental Jlcacia, from which our green-houses are 

 furnished, is of a different class and order from the Robinia, 

 being Polygamia Monozcia; or, perhaps, Polyandria Mo- 

 nogynia. Natural order, Lomentacx, Linn. Leguminosx, 

 Juss. The flowers have the appearance of small tufls; 

 some of the species very fragrant. The foliage presents 

 great variety in the form of the leaf, and manner of its 

 growth. And some of them have the sensitive properties of 

 the Mimosa. 



The Jlcacia Vera, or JVRmosa Wilotica, a tree that 

 grows abundantly on the sandy soil of Egypt and Arabia, 

 furnishes the Gum-arabic, a pure concrete mucilage, which 

 exudes, spontaneously, in a liquid state, from the trunk and 

 boughs, and hardens by contact with the air, and heat of the 

 sun : incisions are sometimes made through the bark, to assist 

 the transudation of the juice. 



The Jlcacia Jlrabica, or East-Indian Gum-Arabic tree, 

 besides yielding this wholesome mucilage, is one of the most 

 useful trees in India, for its tough and hard wood, serving 

 many valuable purposes in ship building, 8cc.: the bark is 

 used for dying, and making ink. 



Moore, in his " Light of the Harem," has noticed the 

 Oriental Acacia, in these beautiful lines: 



" Our sands are bare, but smiling there 



Th' Jlcacia waves her yellow hair. 



Lonely and sweet, nor lov'd the less 



For flowering in a wilderness. 

 # * * * # 



Then come, thy Arab maid shall be 

 The lov'd and lone Jlcacia tree." 



I have not designated any particular species of Yellow 

 Jlcacia, in the Dictionary, from my wish to leave the selec- 

 tion to such as might chance to be most cultivated, or most 

 easily commanded. 



FLOS ADONIS. 



Jldonis. 



That this flower owes its name to the favourite of Venus, 

 is not to be disputed; but whether the Goddess of Beauty 



*" 



