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ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



391 



of the British palace at Constantinople has 

 a trunk 1 ft. in diameter. The foliage, he 

 says, is highly susceptible of the variations 

 of the atmosphere. It affords a thick 

 shade on a bright day; but, when it 

 threatens rain, or when a cloud obscures 

 the sun, the leaflets immediately close 

 their lower surfaces together till the sun 

 again appears. This beautiful phenome- 

 non takes place, also, with all the New 

 Holland species in which the leaves are 

 not caducous, and more particularly with 

 A. dealbata. A. Julibrissin was introduced 

 into England in 1745, and is occasionally 

 met with in collections. There is a large 

 specimen of it in the Botanic Garden at 

 Kew, which flowers frequently in Au- 

 gust. There is one in the Fulham Nursery which also flowers. One in 

 the Horticultural Society's Garden has not yet flowered. In the Bristol Nur- 

 sery, there is one against a house, 20 ft. high, which is covered with a pro- 

 fusion of flowers every year. In the English garden at Caserta, near Naples, 

 there is a tree which was upwards of 40ft. high in January, 1835; and, at 

 Monza, there is one, 24 years planted, which is also 40 ft. high. 



A. decurrens Willd., Mimosa dectirrens Vent. Mat.,t. 61., has leaves with 9 11 pairs of pinna?, 

 each pinna bearing 3040 pairs of narrow, linear, distant leaflets. It was introduced from New 

 Holland in 1790, and flowers from May to July. It grows to the height of 20ft. 



A. molltssima Willd., A. decurrens var. j3 mollis Bot . Reg., t. 371., A. mollis Stu., (Fl. Anstr., 1. 12., 

 and our figs. 393, 393.) ; closely resembles A. decurrens, and appears to us only a variety of that species. 

 It was introduced in 1810; grows to the height of 20 ft. j and produces its yellow flowers in July and 

 August 



A. dealbata Link Enum., ii. p. 445. 

 (Don's Mill., ii. p. 420., and the plate 

 of this tree in our Second Volume) 

 is the A. afiVnis of many British nur- - 

 series, and the black wattle mimosa 

 of Van Diemen's Land. The origin 

 of the specific name affinis is thus 

 given by Dr. Neill, in Gard. Mag., 

 vol. xi. p. 432. : " A. affi v nis seems 

 to be a variety of A. mollissima Willd. ; 

 which variety Link regarded as a 

 species, and called A. dealbata, but 

 which De Candolle, in his Prodromus, marks as * Priori (A. mollissimae) nimis 

 affinis ; ' meaning that, though he had followed Link in calling it a species, 

 he considered it too nearly allied to A. mollissima to be so in reality : from 

 which, apparently, some person fancied the word affinis to be a specific name, 

 and adopted it accordingly.'* A. dealbata has the leaves with 15 pairs of pinna?, 

 and the flowers in lateral racemes. It is one of the hardiest species of the 

 genus, and also one of the most rapid growth. It has been tried in the open 

 air, as a standard, in various parts of Britain; and has stood out for several win- 

 ters, and, in some places, grown to the height of 30 ft. There are three or four 

 trees of this species in the garden of the London Horticultural Society, some 

 of which are upwards of 20 ft. high ; and none of them have been killed by the 

 severe frosts of January, 1836. Some trees in the Kew Botanic Garden have 

 stood out uninjured since 1828. In the Norwich Nursery, a tree, in November, 

 1834, was 16ft. high; the trunk 5 in. in diameter ; and the diameter of the 

 head 12ft. It grows in a light loam, with a sandy subsoil, and in a northern 

 exposure. It had attained that height in 4 years after being planted out ; and 

 it flowers profusely in April, and sometimes ripens seeds. This tree was unin- 

 jured by the winter of 1835-6 ; another tree of the same species, and of nearly 



393 



392 



