Leguminose-—Wistaria. 125 
May, before the leaves are fully developed. This is the only 
species common in gardens, and by far the handsomest known. 
In the South of England it attains great perfection on a trellis 
or pillar, but in the North it requires the protection of a wall. 
There is a white-flowered variety, but the ordinary purplish- 
lilac one is the better of the two. A native of China. 
2. W. frutéscens—This is, perhaps, hardier than the pre- 
ceding, but, although introduced many years previous to that, 
it is still far less generally cultivated, on account of its in- 
feriority as an ornamental plant. It is altogether a smaller 
species, with darker flowers of a violet tinge ; butas it does not 
blossom till Autumn, both should be grown where there is 
space. A variety called magnifica exceeds the old form in 
beauty. A native of North America. 
3. W. brachybétrys.—A more erect shrub with slender sar- 
mentose branches and ovate or cordate leaflets, silvery when 
young. The flowers are larger and of deeper violet, in closer 
shorter racemes than in the above species, and they are pro- 
duced in Spring with the leaves. A native of Japan. 
W. multijiuga is a native of Japan, of quite recent introduc- 
tion. 
16. ROBINIA. 
Deciduous trees or shrubs, often spiny, with imparipinnate 
leaves and axillary racemes of white, rose, or purple flowers. 
Standard large and broad, naked within ; wings oblong-falcate, 
free; keel incurved, obtuse. Vexillary stamen connected 
with the others at the middle. Pod linear, the upper suture 
narrowly winged, valves thin. About five or six species, all 
North American. Named after M. Robin, a French botanist. 
1. R. hispida (fig. 71). Rose Acacia.—A small shrub 
having the young branches and petioles densely clothed with 
bristles. Leaflets oblong or oval, entire, midrib terminating 
in a fine bristle. Flowers larger than in the following, rose or 
pink. A variable plant with regard to the size of the leaves 
and colour of the flowers, and in one variety the characteristic 
bristly hairs are wholly wanting. A native of North America. 
2. R. Pseud-acdcia. Thorn or False Acacia.—A tall rapid- 
growing tree with long slender smooth shoots and the stipules 
usually transformed into strong rigid sharp spines. The ordi- 
nary form has from 9 to 21 oblong or oval leaflets, and white 
odoriferous flowers slightly tinged with pink. But there are 
about a hundred varieties, and the extreme forms are widely 
