LEGUMINOSZ-MIMOSEZ). 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,! 
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 transverse 
joints on dissemination. The seeds are usually flattened, oval, or 
Acacia Catechu. 
Fre. 29. Fie. 30. 
Flower ($). 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’ 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 been able to examine 2 Outside there is usually on either lateral 
we have found the conical apex.of the nucleus face a lunula or subelliptical stain whose edges 
projecting considerably beyond the mouth of the are parallel to those of the seed itself, nearly as 
only ovular envelope we were able to perceive. in Adenanthera and many other Leguminose, 
The axis of the nucleus is almost always oblique. both Mimosee and. Cesalpiniee. 
