276 



This Acacia has been brought under my notice seve- 

 ral times during the last ten years by Mr. AValter Gill, 

 Conservator of Forests of South Australia. The late J. G. 

 Luehmann, following Bentham, always named it A. j^yc- 

 nantha, Benth., var. an gusli folia, Benth., but while not 

 agreeing wdth Bentham's view I did not wish to pronounce 

 judgment until I had seen the plant growing naturally. This 

 opportunity jDresented itself to me on the January, 1907, 

 trip. Mr. Gill's notes are, "No higher than 5-7 ft. Has a 

 decidedly drooping habit. Marble Range, December, 1897," 

 "Two miles out on the western road from Port Lincoln. De- 

 cember, 1900." In examining some plants in the Herbarium 

 of the University of Adelaide I found the plant described 

 as, "Wand-like stem, 3 and 4 to 6 ft. high, drooping at the 

 summit. Heath lands, Port Lincoln" (Professor R. Tat<e, 

 without date). 



I found it to be a thin, straggly, wiry shrub of 6 ft. 

 or so. Extends over a considerable area in the Port 

 Lincoln district — ^-g--, at Green Patch and the Marble Range 

 (January, 1907). I cannot see that it is sutliciently distinct 

 from .4. retinodes, Schl., to warrant its descrijDtion as a 

 new species, although its appearance is striking enough. The 

 most striking difference of the variety (tHIH consists, in my 

 opinion, in the flexuous branches and inflorescence. In 

 some specimens collected by me some of the branches and 

 nearly all the racemes are actually zigzag. The phyllodes 

 spread generally at a right angle from the branches, and 

 are frequently even reflexed. The pedicels on the raceme are 

 also frequently reflexed or spread at a right angle. In .4 . 

 1-etinodes the branches are straight, the petiole of the phyl- 

 lodes forms an acute angle with the branch, and the raceme 

 is straight, wdth more erect pedicels, rarely spreading in a 

 right angle. In A . retinodes the raceme is much shorter 

 than the leaves ; in the new variety the raceme is often longer 

 than the leaves, at least in the specimens from Port Lincoln, 

 (J. H. M., January, 1907), but the inflorescence seems to be 

 very variable in this new variety. In the Marble Range (W. 

 Gill) specimens the inflorescence is one-headed, the head on 

 rather long, spreading, or reflexed peduncles. This seems to 

 be the normal inflorescence, and the zigzag racemes in the 

 Port Lincoln specimens are merely the upper parts of leaf- 

 less branches. Of course, all racemes can be regarded as leaf- 

 less branches with axillary racemes, but the transition state 

 is very apparent in forms of the new^ variety, while the typi- 

 cal A. retinodes has true racemes. The new variety frequents 

 dry situations ; the normal species is usually found in de- 

 pressed and moist situations. The name GiJIii will commem- 



