THE ACACIAS 185 



and trees of great variety and beauty of flowers and ever- 

 green foliage. They are hardy and perfectly at home, and 

 are planted in such profusion as to be the commonest of all 

 street and ornamental trees. The leaves are set on a 

 branching pinnate stem, making them "twice compound" 

 of many tiny leaflets, fascicled on the sides of the twigs, 

 alternate on the terminal shoots of the season. The lacy, 

 fern-like foliage of most acacias would justify the planting 

 of them for this trait alone. But the abundant mass of 

 bloom usually overwhelms the tree-tops, obscuring the 

 foliage with a veil of golden mesh. Sometimes wliite, but 

 oftenest yellow, the individual flowers are very small; but 

 they crowd in button-like heads or elongated spikes, set 

 close in axillary clusters. In their native woods these 

 trees flower much less freely than in the land of their adop- 

 tion. The curling pods are in most species and varieties 

 ornamental, as they pass through many color changes before 

 they finally discharge their seeds. 



Acacias compose a genus of four hundred species, and an 

 untold and constantly increasing number of cultivated 

 varieties. The continent of Australia has the greatest re- 

 presentation of native species. Others belong to Africa — 

 tropical, northern, and southern regions. Asia, in its 

 warmer southern territory, and in southwestern China, 

 has many native acacias. Tropical and temperate South 

 America, the West Indies, Central America, Mexico, the 

 southwestern region of the United States, and the islands 

 of the South Pacific, all have representatives of this won- 

 derful and far-scattered genus. There is no country in- 

 terested in horticulture that does not grow acacias as orna- 

 mental shrubs and trees, even if they must be grown under 

 glass the year round. In southern England the acacias. 



