NOTES ON ACACIA. 257 



Corolla united two-thirds of the way up, glabrous. Pistil 

 tomentose. 



The affinity of this species both in flowers and fruits is 

 with A. ramulosa W. V. F. 



XVII. A. EPHEDROIDES Bentll. 



A. Tratmaniana W.V.F. A. filifolia Benth. 



Those who have carefully studied A. ephedroides, 

 described without ripe fruit, do not need to be reminded 

 that it is in an unsatisfactory state. Mueller declined to 

 touch it in his Iconography, and no recent writer has 

 critically dealt with it and its affinities. Following is a 

 translation of the original description of A. ephedroides. 



"Glabrous, branchlets terete; phyllodes elongated-subulate, 

 somewhat compressed-terete, uncinate-subulate at the apex, very 

 finely striate, spikes shortly cylindrical, dense, solitary or in twos, 

 sessile. It has the habit and phyllodes of A. calamiformis. The 

 flower-bearing spikes about J inch long, shortened before the 

 flowering, amentiform with crowded imbricate flowers. Cape 

 Porteray, Fraser, Swan River, Preiss." Bentham in London Jourm 

 Bot. i, 370, (1842). 



It will be seen that specimens of Fraser and of Preiss 

 were described. I have not seen a specimen of Fraser, but 

 I have of Preiss, which must be taken as a co-type, and it 

 is a very hairy form. It is quoted by its number (974) in 

 Bentham's amended B. Fl. ii, 399, description. 



Preiss says of it that it was collected on this (Perth) 

 side of "Halfway House, Darling Range, 13th September, 

 1839." It is described by him in language of which the 

 following is a translation: — 



"Shrub of 8 feet. Branches somewhat compressed, obtuse- 

 angled, the young shoots with a minute, ashy pubescence. Spikes 

 oblong in one specimen, scarcely half an inch long, in another 

 (but entirely similar) almost globose." 



Q— September 5, 1917. 



