230 



J. H. MAIDEN. 



Mr. O. J. Weston, Afforestation Officer at Canberra r 

 whose name I desire to identify with this interesting plant, 

 writes under date 6th October, 1920, "The exasperating 

 thing about this beautiful Acacia is that we cannot keep 

 it alive through an ordinary winter, either in the nurseries 

 or their immediate surroundings, owing to its susceptibility 

 to frost. The same thing holds good in the case of the 

 South Australian form of Acacia pycnantha. 



"Here we have a tree growing and flowering profusely 

 on the N. and N.W. slopes of Mount Jerrabomberra, but 

 when we take it to the nurseries, distant some eight miles 

 and approximately 200 to 250 feet lower in altitude, it 

 proves a dismal failure. Thousands of seedlings have been 

 raised, but the story every winter has, so far, been the 

 same. No doubt many will yet prove hardy in sheltered 

 situations." 



At the same time we require further observations. When 

 I was in the Federal Territory in July 1919, I made some 

 imperfect notes in regard to young plants. "A. Westoni 

 has a greater resistance to cold, A. pycnantha only excep- 

 tionally standing in the district. A. pycnantha is not a 

 third of the size of A. Westoni in the same time in the 

 nursery." 



I have brought under notice an interesting matter in 

 regard to the amount of variation permissible in a species, 

 and realize that the last word is not yet said on the subject. 



2. Acacia granitica n. sp. 



Frutex patens, deinde erectus, glaber. Phyllodiis linearibus 

 ad 2 dm. longis, 3 mm. latis, basi glandula, crassiusculis, nervis 

 numerosis tenuibus parallelibus. Spicis sessilibus geminis ovatis 

 vel sub-cylindraceis, 15 mm. longis, 7 mm. latis. Calyce hemi- 

 spheric© sinuato-dentato corallam minus dimidio sequante, brevibus 

 pilis sparse tectis. Ovario dense pilose Leguminibus ad 1 dm. 

 longis, 5 mm. latis, paullo moniliformibus. Seminibus elongato- 



