ABUTILON 



ACACIA 



5 



Peril. A.liedfordianum, St. Hil. Lvs. lobed: fls. yellow with 

 red: very tall. Brazil. A. globifldrum, Don. Fls. large, cream- 

 colored. Mauritius. A.i ntegerrimum, Hooker & Jackson. Index 

 Kcwt'iisis. (Sida integerrima, Hook. B.M.4360.) Lvs. entire, cor- 

 date, tomentose below: fls. large, yellow, flaring. New Granada. 

 A.pceonict'flbrttm. Walpers. Fls. rather small, pink. Brazil. 



Abutilon megapotamicum (X 



A. pulchellum, Sweet, and A. pulchrum, Don.=Plagianthus 

 pulchellus. A. vitifblium, Presl. Lvs. lobed: fls. wid-spread- 

 ing, light blue ( a white-flowered var. ) : plant one of the hardiest. 

 Chile. B. M. 4227, 7328. Gn. 51: 1117. L. H B 



ACACIA (ancient name). Leguminbsce, tribe Mimb- 

 sece. Shrubs or trees : Ivs. twice-pinnate, of many leaf- 

 lets, or reduced to phyllodia or leaf -like petioles, as in 

 Figs. 8 and 9 (except the earlier Ivs. of young seedlings, 

 and occasionally those on robust shoots) : fls. yellow or 

 white, minute, in conspicuous globular heads or cylin- 

 drical spikes, axillary, solitary or fasciculate, or diffusely 

 paniculate at the ends of the branches ; stamens very 

 many, exserted. Australia (chiefly) ; a few in N. and S. 

 America, N. and S. Africa and Asia. Ours Australian 

 unless otherwise stated. Prop, by seeds sown under 

 glass as soon as ripe, or by cuttings of half-ripened 

 wood taken with a heel, in summer; the seeds should 

 first be placed in hot water and left to soak 24 hours. 

 The bark of most of the Australian and of some other 

 species (especially A. pycnantha, A. mollissima and A. 

 decurrens) abounds in tannins, which may eventually 

 make their cultivation profitable in the southwest. For 

 outdoor planting in Calif, and the S., keep in pots until 

 large enough to place in permanent quarters, for they do 

 not transplant well. Several African species yield the 

 gum arabic of commerce, especially A. Senegal. Mono- 

 graphed in part by Baron von Miiller in his Iconography 

 of Australian Acacias, cited here as F. v. M. Icon. 



J. BURTT DAVY. 



Of several hundred known kinds, not more than 50 are 

 in cultivation, and a dozen species will cover those deserv- 

 ing of greenhouse culture, but these few are gems. All 

 of this most important section thrive in a winter tem- 

 perature ranging from 40 to 50; in fact, little above 

 the freezing point is sufficient. They do not like heat, 

 and consequently are not adapted for forcing. If win- 

 tered cool and allowed to come along naturally with the 

 increasing heat and light of the spring, they will flower 

 in March and April, a season when their graceful beauty 

 is appreciated in the private conservatory or is valuable 

 to the commercial florist. The prevailing color of all the 

 Australian species is yellow, varying from pale lemon to 

 deep orange. The tall-growing kinds, or rather those in- 

 clined to make long, straight shoots, make excellent sub- 

 jects for planting permanently against a glass partition 

 of a conservatory, or against a pillar. There is scarcely 



a more beautiful plant than A. pubescens, with its 

 slightly drooping, yellow racemes. It deserves a fa- 

 vored place in every cool conservatory. The Acacias are 

 of easy culture. If planted permanently in the border, 

 provision for drainage should be made. A good, coarse, 

 turfy loam, of not too heavy texture, is all they want, 

 with the addition of a fifth part of leaf -mold or well- 

 rotted spent hops. Few of our greenhouse pests trouble 

 them. Water in abundance they like at all times, and in 

 their growing season, which is the early summer months, 

 a daily syringing is necessary. Several of the species of 

 bushy habit are very largely grown as pot-plants in Eu- 

 rope, and are now largely imported and sold for the east- 

 ern trade. A. armata and A. Drummondii are good 

 species for this purpose. We believe, with our hot sum- 

 mers, the commercial man will do better to import than 

 to attempt to grow them from cuttings. The Acacias 

 need pruning, or they will soon grow straggling and un- 

 shapely; more especially is this true of those grown in 

 pots. After flowering, cut back the leading shoots rather 

 severely. Shift into a larger pot if roots demand it, and 

 encourage growth by a genial heat and syringing, giving 

 at same time abundance of light and air. They should 

 be plunged out-of-doors as soon as danger of frost is 

 past, and removed to the greenhouse before any danger 

 of early fall frosts. Cuttings root surely but not quickly. 

 The best material is the side shoots from a main stem 

 in the condition that florists call half -ripened that is, 

 not green and succulent as for a verbena, nor as firm 

 and hard as the wood of a hybrid perpetual rose in Nov. 

 The wood or shoot will be in about the right condition 

 in June. No bottom heat is needed, but the cuttings 

 should be covered with a close frame and kept moder- 

 ately moist and cool by shading. The following spring 

 these young plants can be either planted out-of-doors, 

 where there is a good chance to keep them well watered, 

 or grown on in pots, as described above* A few of the 

 finest species are A. pttbescens, suitable for training on 

 pillars; A. Hiceana makes a bush or can be trained; 

 A. longifolia, an erect species, deserves a permanent 

 position in the greenhouse border. 'Of all the species 

 best adapted for medium-sized, compact pot-plants, A. 

 armata and A. Drummondii are the best. The former 

 has small, simple, dark green Ivs. and globular, pure yel- 

 low fls. A. Drummondii has drooping, cylindrical, pale 

 lemon fls. As both these flower in March without any 

 forcing in our northern greenhouses, they are very val- 

 uable acquisitions to our Easter plants. The Acacia 

 has two distinctive charms: the foliage is either small, 

 simple and glaucous, as in A. armata, or much divided, 

 graceful and fern-like, as in A. pubescens. All the Aca- 

 cias are among the freest-flowering of our hard-wooded 

 plants. Cult, by WILLIAM SCOTT. 



The species in the American trade are here described 

 under the following numbers : A. acinacea, 7 ; aneura, 38 ; 

 angustif olia, 16 ; Arabica, 49 ; argyrophylla, 15 ; armata, 

 5 ; Baileyana, 45 ; brachybotrya, 15 ; calamif olia, 3 ; Cate- 

 chu, 52; Cavenia, 48; celastrifolia, 16; cinerascens, 39; 

 cultrata,I2; cultriformis, 12 ; cuspidata, 1; cyanophylla, 

 20; Cyclops, 32; dealbata, 43; decurrens, 41; diffusa, 1; 

 dodonaeifolia, 10; Drummondii, 53; extensa, 4; falcata, 

 17; f alcif ormis, 18 ; Farnesiana, 47; filicina, 50; genistce- 

 folia, 1; glabra, 15; glaucescens, 39; glaucophylla, 15; 

 grandis, 46; Greggii, 51; harpophylla, 29 ; hispidissima, 

 46; holosericea, 40; implexa, 30; juncifolia, 2; Latrobei, 

 .7; leptophylla,47; leucophylla, 40; linearis, 37; lineata, 

 6; linifolia, 14 ; longifolia, 36 ; longissima,37; lunata, 11; 

 Meissneri,9; melanoxylon, 31 ; mollissima,42 ; myrtifolia, 

 16; neriifolia, 22 ; normalis, 16, 41 ; obliqua, 8; obtusata, 

 21; olecefolia, 11; Oswaldi, 27; oxycedrus, 33; paradoxa, 

 5; pendula, 28; penninervis, 18; pentcedra, 4; pinifolia t 

 2; pravissima, 13; prominens, 14; pubescens, 44; pul 

 chella, 46; pycnantha, 23; retinodes, 22; Riceana, 35; 

 rostellif era, 25 ; rotundifolia,8; salicina, 24; saligna, 19; 

 Sophorae,36; suaveolens,26; undulata , 5 ; verticillata,34. 



A. Lvs. simple; that is, reduced to phyllodia (except 

 the earlier Ivs. of young seedlings, and occasionally 

 those of robust shoots), figs. 7, 8 and 9. 



B. Fls. in globular heads, 

 c. Phyll. terete, or only slightly flattened. 

 1. diffusa, Lindl. (A. genista folia, Link. ). A tall, gla- 

 brous shrub: branches angular: phyll. %-l in. long, 



