57 



to the elegant foliage of a deeper green than is 

 found in the other kinds. It mostly takes the 

 form of a spreading shrub, 6 to 8 feet high, but 

 is often grafted upon tall stems of the common 

 kind — a bad plan, for its branches being very 

 brittle the head is often snapped by rough wind. 

 It should therefore be given a sheltered cor- 

 ner, and is sometimes grown as an espalier or 

 wall shrub asoffering the greatest support to the 

 straggling shoots. In its own country it spreads 

 freely from suckers, and, in fact, so rarely 



but there are also spineless forms of the plant. 

 In France it is sometimes forced for flower 

 in early spring, the plants being grown in 

 pots for a year beforehand. Varieties : — 

 Several garden forms of the Rose Acacia are 

 grown in gardens, but they differ little save 

 in trifling details. Macrophylla is the most dis- 

 tinct — robust, free from hairs, larger both in 

 leaf and flower than the wild form, and often 

 preferred to it. Rosea is a variety with flowers 

 of a deeper colour lasting long upon the plant; 



THE ROSE ACACIA— FLOWER AND LEAF. 



bears seed as to have seemingly lost the power ; 

 if on its own roots it is of far greater value 

 as a flowering shrub, the grafted plants rarely 

 living for any length of time. Its growth is 

 free, with large but rather scanty leaves ; the 

 flowers are also large, coming freely during 

 June in bunches that are longer and looser 

 than in other pink kinds, flowering sometimes 

 a second time later in the season. This form 

 may often be known even when bare of leaves 

 by the reddish hairs upon the young growths, 



microphyl/a, a small-leaved shrub with flowers 

 of a lighter rose ; and nana^ a dwarf form more 

 curious than beautiful. Plants on own roots are 

 to be had, and such should be put in warm or 

 gritty soils. 



The Western Locust Tree (R. neo-mexi- 

 cand). — A species which first found its way to 

 Europe in 1887, flowering in Germany four 

 years later. It is the only kind known in the 

 western states, being found sparsely in the val- 

 leys of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, as 



