138 R. H. CAMBAGE. 
the same shape as the cotyledons and slightly smaller, 
glabrous, often mucronate, red underneath, the colour 
showing through as rusty to the upper surface, venation, 
only seen under lens, resembling that of A. pruinosa, having 
an oblique midrib, and a short second vein nearly parallel 
to the midrib, the rachis hoary. 
Opposite the pinnate leaf and slightly higher, is the first 
bipinnate leaf with a common petiole of 7 mm., and 8 pairs 
of leaflets. Above this the leaves are alternately placed 
with pinne in 2 to 5 pairs, up to 5 cm. long; leaflets 10 to 
14 pairs. At length the phyllodia begin to appear, but in 
some cases the plant is as much as 10 feet high while still 
covered with only bipinnate leaves. 
The number of leaflets, either on the pinnate or even on 
the first bipinnate leaves of the same species does not 
appear to be constant. 
A feature of the cotyledons of this and several other 
species of Acacia is that after coming out of the ground 
they remain almost erect for nearly a week, and their 
advent is rapidly followed by the development of the one 
pinnate leaf which shows above the edges of the cotyledons 
within two or three days (See Plate I), or earlier than the 
seedling foliage of Kucalyptus species succeed the cotyle- 
dons. In one week from the time the cotyledons showed, 
in January, the pinnate leaf of Acacia rubida measured 
half an inch, and the five pairs of leaflets were nearly fully 
developed: while the cotyledons had almost assumed a 
horizontal position. The rate of development, however, is 
more rapid in summer than in winter. 
Although it isa common sight to see the dimorphic foliage 
on such species as Acacia neriifolia, A. melanoxylon, A. 
rubida, and others, I can find no record of a phyllodineous 
species of Acacia fruiting before it has developed phyl- 
lodia. Such takes place, however, at least in the case 
