124 
In Sot. Mag. t. 2166 (1820) it is figured under the name "Acacia longifolia ft. 
Thick spiked, long-leaved Acacia." This so-called variety is described as "foliis 
latioribus, spicis cylindracea-conicis axillaribus terminalibusque." 
The phyllodia as depicted are however scarcely more than 1 cm. wide and 
the bulge (probably incorrect) of the widest one is only 1'5 cm. The conical 
appearance of the ends of the flower-spikes is accidental. I cannot find that there 
is any classificatory value in the spikes "exacte cylindraceis " contrasted with those 
" cylindracea-conicis." 
Loddiges' Sot. Cab. t. 678 (1822) figures A. longifolia, but the figure inclines 
to the broad-phyllodia or Sophorte group. 
The figure of Acacia longifolia in Paxton's Magazine of Botany, iv, 197 
(1S38), is bad. The spikes follow the tapering form depicted in Hot. Mag. t. 2166, 
but the phyllodes are shown lanceolate, and with an erroneous spreading venation. 
There is a very good figure of A. longifolia (with phyllodia 6-7 cm.) in 
Maund's "Botanist," ii, No. 77 (circa 1840). 
So far I have only been referring to the typical or approximately typical 
form. 
In the following description Bentham includes a number of varieties : 
An erect shrub, sometimes low and bushy, but attaining often a considerable size, or growing 
into a small tree ; glabrous or slightly pubescent when young ; branchlets angular. 
Phyllodia from broadly oblong to cblong-lanceolate or linear, very obtuse or almost acuminate ; 
usually narrowed towards the base, with two to five more or less prominent longitudinal 
nerves, and conspicuously or faintly reticulate between them, varying in length from 
2 to 3 inches in some varieties, to 5 or 6 in others. 
Spikes axillary, loose and interrupted ; flowers not imbricate, almost always 4-merous. 
Calyx very short, toothed. 
Petals smooth, united at the base or sometimes quite separating. 
Pod linear, often several inches long, 2 to 4 lines broad, or rarely more ; valves coriaceous, 
convex over the seeds, usually contracted between them. 
Seeds longitudinal, often distant, funicle not much folded, thickened almost from the base into 
a turbinate almost cup-shaped aril at the base of the seed, and sometimes nearly as large. 
(B.n. ii, 397.) 
Bentham (B.Fl. ii, 398), following Mueller, enumerates six forms (varieties) 
as follows : 
(a.) phlebophylla, from the Victorian Alps. 
(b.) Sophorce. 
(c.) typica, including A. obtusifolia A. Cunn. 
(rf.) mucronata. 
(e.) floribunda. 
(f.) dissitijlora. 
He goes on to say that these forms, different as they generally appear, are 
connected by such a gradual chain of intermediates that they cannot be separated 
by any positive characters, except, perhaps, the first (phlebophylla}, which seems 
o have a much broader pod, but it is a^ yet not sufficiently known. 
