132 



DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SHRUBS 



In the southern range of states there are a number of other species in 

 cultivation, most of them trees. They can all be known by the numerous 

 oblique blades on the abruptly twice-pinnate leaves. 



[Fresh seeds, soaked in hot water.] 



FIG. 169. Evergreeu Albizzia. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF ALBIZZIA 



* Hardy to New York with protection ; blades of leaves 500 or more, \ 



inch long and oblique ; flowers in globular heads, pink. MIMOSA 

 TREE (168) Albizzia julibrissin. 



* Tender species, hardy only in the Gulf states. (A.) 



A. Flowers yellowish in cylindric axillary spikes ; leaves evergreen ; 

 shrub 6-15 feet high. EVERGREEN ALBIZZIA (169) Albiz- 

 zia lophantha. 



A. Flowers in globular heads ; leaves deciduous. Six or eight species 

 of tall tropic or semitropic trees. 



Acacia. ACACIAS or WATTLES. There are a number of species of 

 Acacias out of doors in the Gulf states and in northern conservatories 

 which are well worthy of cultivation for the beauty of foliage, as well as the 

 brightness and peculiarity of bloom. The flowers are generally in glob- 

 ular clusters of fine feathery parts, and usually of some shade of yellow, 

 from pale lemon to deep orange. To the eye they form in their foliage 

 two entirely dissimilar groups ; those with simple, thickish, sessile alter- 

 nate leaves, and those with fern-like, abruptly twice-pinnate leaves. To 

 the casual observer it would seem that the plants should form two genera, 

 but the seedlings, or young plants, of those which, when mature, have 

 simple leaves, have in this early stage the fern-like foliage of the other 



