128 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



Acacias are tall, elegant trees from twenty to forty feet 

 high, clothed with " delicate Sensitive-plant foliage/' fea- 

 thery and pendulous, but thick ; and they are covered from 

 the very summit to the bending branches that sweep the 

 ground, with bright canary- coloured blossoms. When 

 standing underneath, the appearance of the tree overhead 

 is " like a canopy of gold/' and the rich and almost over- 

 powering scent is "like the hawthorn or meadow-sweet." 

 These are the true Acacias ; the trees which go by that 

 name in England, with pinkish-white papilionaceous blos- 

 soms, which were originally introduced from North America 

 more than two hundred years ago, are called by botanists 

 false Acacias, because they want the distinctive mark 

 above named ; they are, properly speaking, Eobinias. The 

 character of many of the true Acacia blossoms may be seen 

 in the little greenhouse Mimosa, in which a number of se- 

 parate flowers are set close together, the long projecting 

 stamens forming a globular head ; in others they grow in a 

 number of little separate tufts. 



Amongst the un-English forms which we meet with in 

 Tasmania (and also in Australia) are the tree* like Nettles, 

 "armed with a fierce array of poisoned spears, and tower- 

 ing above the human race in height." So sharp is the 



