NAT. ORDER. LEGUMINOS^. 
147 
erally unarmed, but the rachides are prickly beneath ; leaflets from 
sixteen to twenty, and g-enerally an odd one at the lower side of the 
base of each pinnoe ; narrow, almost linear, acute, very unequal at the 
base, or subdimidiate ; and st'qxlls minute, linear at the orig-in of the 
pinnoe ; stipules deciduous ; panicles from six inches to a foot long-, sub- 
cylindrical or thyrsiform, their main stems prickly, at first terminal, but 
their ends ultimately shoot out into a branch ; peduncles full an inch 
long-, round, unarmed, covered with a fulvous or golden brown tomen- 
tum, patent, divaricate, sing-ly or in bunches of from two to six from 
each axil ; hracteas ovate or lanceolate, deciduous ; heads g'lobose, 
very dense and close ; flowers perfectly sessile, with minute, linear, 
short, hairy, deep dull red or purplish bracteolas at their base, not 
visible externally ; cahjx pubescent, but shining', cylindrical, four to six 
toothed — the teeth short, half-ovate, often unequal in breadth, each 
two-nerved ; petals four to six, but their number does not uniformly 
correspond with that of the sepals — pale g'reen with whitish edg-es, 
and the tip purplish-red ; stamens very numerous and dense, not 
spreading", but forming- close, thick bundles ; between which appears 
the dull-red color of the calyxes ; filaments rather short, smooth, and 
nearly white ; anthers small, g'lobose, pale yellow ; style smooth, near- 
ly white, a little longer than the stamens, with a simple stigma ; pods 
never perfected in this country. All the flowers, however, appear to 
be hermaphrodite. 
This is a most elegant and lovely shrub, but a dangerous neighbor 
to other plants within its reach, and requiring much space for its dis- 
play. It would be capable of being formed into an impenetrable fence, 
or might be advantageously employed to give additional security, ii 
trained along a wall. The flowers are scentless, but singular anr 
handsome, from the strong contrast between the pale yellow bundles 
of stamens, and the dark dull-red of their interstices. In the bud the 
heads are altogether of a deep red, becoming yellower as the filaments 
expand. The native country of this species of Acacia must remain 
uncertain. In medicine it is but little known. 
