ACACIA CULTRIFORMIS. 
(Coulter-shaped-leaved Acacia.) 
Class. 
Order. 
POLYGAMIA. MONCECIA. 
Natural Order. 
LEGUMINOS M. 
Generic Character.— Calyx four or five-toothed. 
‘etals four or five, sometimes free, and sometimes 
lined together into a four or five-cleft corolla. Sta- 
tens variable in number, from 10 to 200 in each flower. 
egume continuous, dry, two-valved.— Don’s Gard. and 
Many. 
Specific Character.— Branches smooth, angular; 
phyllodia cultriform, ending in an acute hooked mu- 
crone, which leans to one side, and furnished with a 
gland on the middle of the upper margin, one-nerved, 
the nerve nearly parallel with the lower margin ; 
heads crowded ; disposed in racemes. 
Few families of plants are more extensive than the genus Acacia , or abound 
lore with really handsome and ornamental species. Among so great a number 
are naturally led to look for considerable difference in the qualities that render 
hem valuable in the eyes of the culturist, and also in some individuals so near an 
pproximation to each other in general lineaments and habits, as to render the 
iscovery and definition of any tangible distinction extremely difficult. 
The casual observer would scarcely notice any material dissimilarity between 
i. cultriformis and many other nearly allied species, which present an air and 
abit in many respects strikingly uniform, but are yet marked with peculiar and 
ery characteristic distinctions, though less obvious and glaring. A. dolabriformis 
nd A. scapuliformis are both very similar to it. The latter may be knowm by the 
;aves being a little longer, and having a rather more robust habit, the whole plant 
Iso being more profusely covered with a silvery glaucous bloom. A. dolabriformis 
i still less glaucous, and there is also a difference in the inflorescence, whilst the 
iaves or phyllodia are less rigid, and are destitute of the small gland near the 
fiddle, which is common to both the other two. 
In the earlier months of the year there are few plants more engaging, or more 
seful in the decoration of the greenhouse, than the different species of Acacia , 
iden with an almost over-abounding number of their unassuming and modest- 
>oking globular heads of golden flowers. The light, airy, and elegant, appearance 
[ the slender branches and small phyllodia, form, even when not enlivened with 
