NOTES ON ACACIA. 271 



It is named in honour of Dr. Frederick Stoward, Govern- 

 ment Botanist and Vegetable Pathologist, Department of 

 Agriculture of Western Australia, who has vigorously 

 helped me in the elucidation of this beautiful and interest- 

 ing genus, so well developed in his State. 



A. Beauverdiana Ewart and Sharman affords another 

 illustration of a species having flowers both in globular 

 heads and cylindrical spikes, and this has been noted in 

 regard to a few others. It is but another illustration of 

 the fact that all morphological characters used in classifi- 

 cation vary, and must be interpreted philosophically. 



Affinities. 



1. With A, Beauverdiana Ewart and Sharman. 



As already pointed out, this is another species which 

 hovers between the groups with globular and cylindrical 

 heads. The two species appear to be closest allied. 



Bat the phyllodes of A, Beauverdiana are more erect; 

 they resemble each other in venation. The peduncles are 

 very often recurved in A. Beauverdiana, straight in A, 

 Stowardi. As regards the flowers, the calyx is propor- 

 tionately much longer in comparison with the corolla in A. 

 Beauverdiana, while the two species are sharply separated 

 by the pods, those of A. Beauverdiana being narrow and 

 moniliform. 



2. With A. duriuscida W.V.F. 



There is a good deal of external similarity between these 

 two species, but if we examine them carefully, we find that 

 flowers in spikes are unknown in A. duriuscida, while the 

 calyx is more than half as long as the corolla in that species, 

 and not half as long in A. Stowardi. The phyllodes of A. 

 duriuscida are shorter and more resinous, though in neither 

 species is it abundant; those of J., duriuscida are less 

 smooth to the touch, as the venation is coarser, i.e., the 



