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ACACIA OXYCEDRUS. 
(sharp cedar.) 
CLASS. 
ORDER. 
POLYGAMIA. 
MONCECIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
LEGUMINOSiE. 
Generic Character. — Vide Vol. iii. p. 145. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen shrub. Stipules assuming the form of spines. Leaves 
scattered, or inclining to a verticillate arrangement, linear-lanceolate, terminating in a sharp point, 
three-nerved, glabrous. Spikes of flowers axillary, solitary, about an inch and a half long. Flowers 
dense, yellow, four-cleft. 
Synonymes. — Acacia pugioniformis. A. taxifolia. 
To the botanic student, and others who seek to delve into the mine of vegetable 
nature with the view of exploring her secret processes, there are features in the 
genus Acacia of a highly interesting description, and which serve to show some- 
thing of the sort of metamorphoses that certain plants undergo. We refer chiefly 
to the dilatation of the leaf- stalk in some species, throughout the early stages of 
their progress, so as to give it the appearance of an actual leaf, and the protrusion 
from the extremity of the phyllodia thus produced, in the second or third year, of 
leaflets possessing the structure natural to the plant ; ihus proving the real cha- 
racter of the expanded petioles. This is a very curious fact, and one which must 
indubitably tend to render the hypothesis of botanists concerning the changes of 
which different parts of plants are susceptible, being all referable to one type, in 
some degree plausible ; although, in the case under notice, when maturity is 
attained, such phenomena rarely occur, and they may, therefore, only be owing to 
the imperfect powers of the young specimens. 
In the species which we now bring forward, there is another peculiarity which 
deserves mention. At the base of each leaf, the stipules appear in the shape of 
small spines. Now, thorns are known by most persons who study botany to be 
branches in a stunted state, and in the common Sloe they may be seen in every 
variety of condition, from an apparently lifeless and prickly spur to a perfect 
