DICHROSTACHYS CINEREA. (Nat. order Leguminosae.) 



DlCHKOSTACHYS. DO.-— GEN. CHAR. Calyx 5-fcoothed. Petals 5, valvate, usually cohering. Stamens in the perfect flowera 10, free; 

 anthers ovate, tipped with a deciduous gland. Ovary nearly sessile, with several ovules; style short or filiform, with a small terminal stigma. Lower 

 flowera of the spike neuter, with loug, liuear white or colored staminodia, and a small rudimentary ovary, pod liuear compressed, variously twisted, inde- 

 hiscent or the valves irregularly separating from the persistent sutur e3. —Small trees or rigid shrubs, the branchlets occasionally spinescent. Leaves ab- 

 ruptly bipiuaate, with a stipitate glaud between the pinnae of the lowest or of all the pairs, leaflets small. Stipules subulate or acuminate, often imbricate 

 ou the short flowerin» branches. Flowers sessile, in dense cylindrical spikes, either terminal or apparently axillary by the shortness of the branchlet, the 

 upper flowers of the spike hermaphrodite and yellow, the lower oues neuter and white pink or purple. Benth. Ft . Aust. vol, ii. p. 299. Cailliea, Gv,ill. et 

 Ferr. 



DICHROSTACHYS CINEREA.. (WA.) A small tree or large shrub, spinescent, leaves 1-3 inches long -with the petiole 

 generally pubescent, pinuas 8-12 pair \ to I inch long, leaflets 12-20 pairs crowded oblong-linear slightly falcate 1 to 2 lines long ciliat- 

 ed and often hairy, spikes solitary or 2-3 together pedunculate 1-3 inches long, peduncle pubescent and generally with a bracteole about 

 the middle, liermathrodite, flowers about 1 line long without the stamens which are twice or thrice as long, neuter flowers with very long 

 gtaminodia, le»ume 2-3 inches long 3-4 lines wide, irregularly twisted viscid-pubescent or glabrous. WA. Prod. p. 271 ; — Wight Icones 

 tab, 357. Mimosa ciaerea, Roxb. FL hid. ii. 561. Desman thus cinereus, Willd. Acacia cinerea, Spreng. 



A vert/ common tree or shrub in dry aridsoils in the plains and, lower hills throughout the presidency, also in Bengal, Bombay, Ceylon, 

 the Archipelago and N. Australia ; it is called Vadatalla in Tamil, Velturu in Telugu, and Andara in Ceylon. The flowers are very showy, the 

 upper half of the spike being yellow, the lower rose colored ; tin wood U very hard, tough and strong, but too small to be of much vse, it makes good 

 tent pegs. 



Analysis. 



1. A neuter flower shewing the long stamiaodia. 



2. A fertile flower. 



3. The same, calyx opened, stamens removed. 



4. A corol opened. 



5. Corol and the 10 free stamens. 



6. Ovary and style. 



7. Ovary cut transversely . 



8. The same cut vertically. 



9. Anthers shewing the glandular tips (which are deciduous) all much magnified, 

 10. Legumes. 



185 



