FLORA OF ADEN. 
191 
3. Acacia hamulosa (Willd.) Benth. Lond. Journ. Bot. I, 509 ; 
Anders. Jonrn. Linn. Soc. V, Snppl. p. 19. 
Acacia asak Willd. Sp. PI. IV, 1077 ; Schweinf. Bull, Herb. Boiss. 
189L, App. II, 215. 
Acacia Hunteri Oliv. in Hook. Ic. PI. tab. 1350 ? 
Description A densely branched low shrub, 8 feet high, divaricate, 
armed with sharp spines. Spines 3 together, the infrastipular ones 
straight, the intrapetiolar one hooked-recurved, nigrescent when old. 
Leaves 1 — 1J inches long; petioles aculeate; pinnae 2 — 3-jugate, the 
lower ones subopposite or alternate ; leaflets 3 — 6- jugate, obliquely 
oblong, obtuse, glabrous. 
Flowers in lax spikes, white ; peduncles axillary, at the end longer 
than the leaf ; fruiting peduncle 2 \ inches long. 
Pod 3J inches long, 1J inches broad, ovate, linear, rounded at both 
ends, mucronulate, indehiscent ; valves membranous, plane, glabrous, 
Seeds 1 — 2 [2 — 4 in the specimens from Saati, Eritrea]. 
Mowers : — December (Schweinf.), September 1880 (Hunter). 
Fruits : — March and December (Schweinf.), December 1889 (Defl.), 
September 1880 (Hunter). 
Locality : — Above the coal depot of the Messag. Marit., Wadi 
Maala, Shum Shum Range (Schweinf.) ; plain of Maala (Defl.) ; in 
valleys (Hook., Anders.) ; great valley between Steamer-Point and town 
(Marchesetti) ; without locality (Birdw.). 
Distribution : — Eritrea, Jeddah, Yemen, Hadramaut. 
Note :■ — D. Oliver described and figured a plant in Hooker's leones 
Plantarum (tab. 1350) under the name of Acacia Hunteri , which Hunter 
had found in the (< neighbourhood of Aden." 
It is doubtful whether this species is identical with Acacia hamulosa. 
Schweinfurth is of opinion, that Oliver's plant is nothing but a small- 
leaved and small-fruited specimen of Bentham's A . hamulosa. The 
description of the flowers and leaves as far as it goes agrees in every 
detail with that of A. asak Willd. It must, besides, not be forgotten, 
that many species of Acacia show a tendency towards developing forms 
with smaller leaves and fruits. If Schweinfurth says that the leaves of 
his own specimens are linear-oblong, oblong and obovate-oblong, and 
always rounded at both ends, it should be remembered that Oliver figured 
just that type of leaf which is less common in his A. Hunteri, for he 
says in his diagnosis : “ foliolis latiuscule oblongis obtusis vel inter - 
dum obscure mucronulatis.'' 
In order to enable botanists to clear up on the spot any doubtful 
point as to the identity of A. Hunteri , we think it advisable to add 
Oliver's description of this species from Hooker's leones PI. p. 36 : 
i 
