474 
XLIII. LEGUMINOSyE. 
| Acacia. 
in the compound leaf seldom afford even a specific distinction, and the bracts in the flower- 
head still less so, and I have therefore in the descriptions seldom mentioned them. The bracts 
arc almost always narrow, closely packed in with the flowers, and more or less dilated at the 
end, sometimes quite peltate ; generally the outer ones of each head are flatter, the inuer ones 
more slender and proportionally more dilated at the end, where they are usually ciliate and 
sometimes acuminate. The characters derived from the united or free sepals must be used with 
caution, for the sepals, at first united, often separate as the flowering advances. The forms 
assumed by the pod are tolerably constant in species, although rarely available for classing them 
in groups, so it is also with the seeds, transverse or longitudinal, and with the infinite variety 
of forms assumed by the funicle. This funicle on the ripe seed rarely remains short and 
filiform, it almost always forms two or three folds under the seed, the end of the last fold or the 
whole of the last and more or less of the lower folds being thickened into a variously-shaped 
small fleshy aril, usually described as a strophiole, but always a part of the funicle and con- 
tinuous with the lower filiform part, or forming the whole funicle ; occasionally the thickened 
part is much elongated, extending round one side of the seed, returning on the same side and 
forming another double fold on the other side, or completely encircling the seed in a double fold 
returning on the same side, or extending twice round without a return, or even encircling it in a 
triple fold. All these and other modifications appear to be constant in each species, but only 
rarely available for specific diagnosis, for in many species the funicle is as yet unknown ; it is 
often unsafe to rely on it unless the seed is quite ripe, and then the thin part of the funicle is 
so brittle that it is often destroyed merely by the elastic opening of the pod. — Bentli. 
Leaves all or mostly reduced to flat terete or subulate phyllodia nr minute scales without leaflets. 
iPhyllodiniEa.) 
Flowers in globular heads. 
Phyllodia none or reduced to minute scales. Branches rush-like, not 
spineseent III. Calamiforafes. 
Phyllodia (either small and tooth-like or vertically flattened or 
elongated) decurrent on or continuous with the branches. Branches 
3 winged or the phyllodia (usually pungent) very shortly or scarcely 
decurrent, but not articulate I. Continue. 
Phyllodia articulate on the stems, at least when old. 
Phyllodia rigid, tapering into pungent straight points, usually 
narrow or short, not whorled II. Pungentes. 
Phyllodia linear-subulate, terete or tetragonous, rarely slightly 
flattened, obtuse or with incurved or innocuous points, not 
whorled III. Calamiformes. 
Phyllodia terete or slightly flattened, usually short, all whorled or 
crowded and irregularly whorled or clustered IV. Brunioidf;k. 
Phyllodia vertically flattened, broader than thick, obtuse acute or 
with incurved or innocuous points. 
Phyllodia 1-nerved, the veins pinnate, reticulate or rarely 1 or 2 
secondary small nerves from the base on one side of the midrib V. Uninerves. 
Phyllodia with 2, 3, or more parallel nerves VI. Plurinerves. 
Flowers in cylindrical or oblong spikes. 
Phyllodia rigid, tapering into pungent points. 
Phyllodia several-nerved, decurrent on the stem 2 .A. triptera. 
Phyllodia 1 or 3-nerved, articulate on the stem II. Pungentes. 
Phyllodia obtuse, or with a callous, innocuous or hooked point . . . . VII. Jcliflor/e. 
Leaves all bipinnate. Flowers in g lobular heads or rarely in spikes. (BipinnatSB.) 
Stipules none or brown and scarious. Spines none or axillary. 
Flower-heads several, in axillary or paniculate racemes VIII. Botryocephal.e. 
Stipules all or some of them spineseent. Flower-heads single on axil- 
lary peduncles IX. Gummifer®. 
Div. I. PHYLLODINE.E. — Leaves mostly phyllodineous without leaflets. 
Series I. Continual. — Phijllodia narrow, rigid, tapering into a pungent point, continuous 
with the stem and shortly and trifariously or irregularly decurrent. Flowers in heads or spikes 
on axillary simple peduncles. 
Flowers in globular heads. Phyllodia crowded on the branchlets, 
slender and rigid, 2 to 4in. long. Pod nearly 1 Jin. broad 1 . A. Pence. 
Flowers in cylindrical spikes. Phyllodia lanceolate, thick, several- 
nerved 2. A. triptera 
Series II. Pungentes. — Rigid shrubs, branches in some species spineseent. Phyllodia 
articulate on the stem, rigid, tapering into pungent points, subulate, linear or lanceolate, or rarely 
none. Flowers in heads or spikes, on axillary simple peduncles. 
(Besides the following species a few of the short-leaved Calamiformes and of the small rigid- 
leaved Plurinerves might almost be classed among tbe Pungentes.)' 
