LEG UMINOSJE-MIMOSEJE. 



39 



ovary is seen a parietal placenta superposed to a sepal, bearing a 

 variable number of descending ovules in two vertical rows (from one 

 to twenty in each) ; they are more or less completely anatropous, 1 

 with the micropyle upwards and outwards. The fruit is a pod, oval 

 oblong or linear, straight curved or more or less distorted, cylin- 

 drical convex or flat, membranous coriaceous or woody, bivalved 

 or indehiscent ; its cavity is continuous or divided into compartments 

 by false septa between the seeds, and it rarely divides into transver 

 joints on dissemination. The seeds are usually flattened, oval, or 



Acacia Catechu. 







Fig. 29. 

 Flower (f). 



Fig. 30. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



ellipsoidal ; the funicle is thick or slender, flesh-coloured, straight 

 or bent once or several times on itself, or surrounding the seed or 

 more or less dilated towards the hilum, as a sort of arillary body. 

 Under the coats 2 is a thick fleshy embryo, sometimes coloured, 

 which may or may not be surrounded by a fleshy or horny albumen, 

 of variable thickness. 



The genus Acacia consists of trees or shrubs, rarely herbs, whose 

 stems and branches are unarmed or prickly. The abortive branches 

 are sometimes transformed into spines. The leaves are alternate 

 bipinnate, or else the petiole is dilated into a laterally compressed 



1 In those species we have heen able to examine 

 we have found the conical apex of the nucleus 

 projecting considerably beyond the mouth of the 

 only ovular envelope we were able to perceive. 

 The axis of the nucleus is almost always oblique. 



2 Outside there is usually on cither lateral 

 face a lunula or subelliptical stain whose edges 

 are parallel to those of the seed itself, nearly as 

 in Adcmnilhcra and many other LeffUtttin 

 both Mimosece and Ccesalpii 



