0037 



ACACIA. 



Family: LEGUMINOSAE 



Reproductive system: MONADELPHOUS, POLYANDRY 



The silk tree acacia, Mimosa julibrissin, Scop. [Translator's note: now designated 

 Albizzia julibrissin Duraz.] is quite a large tree grown widely in parks and gardens. Its 

 trunk, fifty to sixty feet high, supports a broad, flattened crown. The leaves are large, 

 two- or three-fold bipinnately compound, composed of twelve or fifteen pairs of small 

 leaflets that are narrow and close together. They are green and smooth with entire 

 margins. The flowers form reddish or yellow flower heads and create a very pretty sight. 

 They have a monophyllous five-pointed calyx, an infundibuliform corolla, also five- 

 pointed, and a large number of red stamens gathered at their bases like tassels of silk. The 

 ovary is superior. It converts to a leguminous fruit several inches long containing small 

 round seeds. 



FLOWERS: August and September. 

 RANGE: The Levant. 



USES. This tree should be propagated in parks and gardens everywhere. Its foliage 

 is most elegant, and during the flowering season it's at its best. There is one in the school 

 of the King's Garden in Paris; it blooms every year, and it is not at all harmed by cold 

 weather. [Translator's note: the "school" (ccole) occupies a central part of the King's 

 Garden (now the Jardin des Plantes). It is used for teaching botany and is planted with 

 special trees for study and research.] 



Livestock definitely will eat the leaves. The acacia in the botanical garden in 

 Grenoble blooms and bears fruit. 



CULTIVATION. This tree is propagated in springtime by seeding in a manure 

 bed. In northern France it must be placed in loose soil and kept sheltered from the east 

 wind. 



