LEGUMINOS^K 595 



early in the summer, deciduous in the autumn, slightly falcate, compressed, stipitate, 

 oblique at base, rounded and short-pointed at apex, 2'-4' long, I'-lj' wide, with thick 

 straight or irregularly contracted margins and thin papery walls conspicuously marked by 

 narrow horizontal reticulate veins; seeds narrow-obovoid, compressed, \' long, suspended 

 transversely on a long slender funicle, light brown, marked by large oval depressions. 



A tree, occasionally 25-30 high, with a short trunk 10'-12' in diameter, spreading 

 branches forming a low wide or irregular head, and branchlets when they first appear 

 somewhat striately angled, glabrous, pale yellow-brown or dark red-brown, turning pale 

 gray in then* second year, and armed with occasional stout recurved infrastipular chest- 

 nut-brown spines \' long, compressed toward the broad base and sharp-pointed, or rarely 

 unarmed. Bark of the trunk about |' thick, divided by shallow furrows into broad 



Fig. 545 



ridges separating on the surface into thin narrow scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close- 

 grained, bright clear brown streaked with red and yellow, with thin clear yellow 

 sapwood of 6 or 7 layers of annual growth; valued and largely used as fuel. 



Distribution. Valley of the Guadalupe River in the neighborhood of New Braunfels, 

 Comal County, Texas, to the Sierra Madre of Nuevo Leon; most abundant and of its 

 largest size south of the Rio Grande on dry gravelly mesas and foothills. 



5. Acacia Greggii A. Gray. Cat's Claw. Una de Gato. 



Leaves l'-3' long, pubescent or puberulous, with 1-3 pairs of pinnae, a short slender 

 petiole furnished near the middle with a minute oblong chestnut-brown gland, and linear 

 caducous stipules r V long; pinnae short-stalked, with 4-5 pairs of obovate oblique 

 leaflets rounded or truncate at apex and unequally contracted at base into a short peti- 

 olule, thick and rigid, 2-3^nerved, inconspicuously reticulate-veined, hoary-pubescent, 

 iV~i' long. Flowers fragrant, bright creamy yellow, in dense oblong pubescent spikes, 

 on a peduncle \'-\' long, and fascicled usually 2 or 3 together toward the end of the 

 branches; calyx obscurely 5-lobed, puberulous on the outer surface, half as long as the 

 petals slightly united at base and pale-tomentose on the margins; stamens \' long; ovary 

 long-stalked, covered with long pale hairs. Fruit fully grown at midsummer and hanging 

 unopened on the branches until winter or the following spring, compressed, straight or 

 slightly falcate, obliquely narrowed at base into a short stalk, acute or rounded at apex, 

 more or less contracted between the seeds, 2'-4' long, \'-\' wide, curling and often con- 

 torted when fully ripe, the valves thin and membranaceous, thick-margined, light brown, 

 conspicuously transversely reticulate- veined; seeds nearly orbicular, compressed, dark 

 brown and lustrous, \' in diameter, marked by small oval depressions. 



