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XII. Note on the Identity of three described Species o/" Acacia. 

 By Charles Lush, M.D. F.L.S. 



Read April 17th, 1838. 



VY HEN I was at Cairo in November last, Mr. Traill (Superintendant of the 

 Gardens of Ibrahim Pasha) showed me some young plants of Roxburgh's Mi- 

 mosa Sirissa, raised from seed which I had sent from Bombay. Both Mr. Traill 

 and myself were convinced of the identity of this tree, called in the Marat'ha 

 language Siriis, with the Mimosa Lehhek of Forskal's Flora JEgyptiaco-Arabica. 

 Forskal does not assert that this tree is a native of Egypt, — " Kahirae hortensis 

 ilia" is the habitat assigned by this author. There is, therefore, nothing to 

 discourage the belief that this species was introduced into Egypt from India, 

 where it is undoubtedly wild, in the drier mountain-jungles of the west. 



I feel at the same time convinced that the Mimosa speciosa of Jacquin, Misc. 

 vol. iii. 47., is also identical with the above species. The figure in that work 

 precisely represents the Indian, and the Egyptian cultivated tree. I propose 

 the following specific character, slightly altered from De Candolle's Prodr. 

 Syst. Nat., to include the three species with their synonyms. 



Acacia Lebbek : inermis, glabriuscula; pinnis plerumque 4 — 6-jugis: foliolis 

 5 — 10-jugis ovalibus subdimidiatis utrinque obtusis, petiolis eglandulosis, 

 capitulis pedunculatis aggregatis, floribus pedicellatis, leguminibus lato- 

 linearibus planis membranaceis. 



Mimosa Lebbek. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1503, cum synonymis. 



Mimosa Lebbek. FoKsk. Fl. ^gypt.-Ar. p. cxxiii. culta in planitie (Serisch 

 Indis !) 



Acacia Lebbek. Willd. Sp. PI. iv. p. 1066. De Cand. Prodr. ii. p. 466. 



Mimosa Sirissa. Roxb. Flor. Ind. vol. ii, p. 544. 



Mimosa speciosa. Jacq. Misc. vol. iii. p. 47- Icon. vol. i. p. 19. t. 198. 



