t 
103 
• 5 
No. 60^ 
Acacia melanoxylon, R.Br. 
The Blackwood. 
(Natural Order LEGUMlNOSvE : MIMOSE^E.) 
Botanical description.— Germs Acacia, Willd. 
Sepals. —5, 4, or 3, free or united (wanting in A. Huegelii and A. squamata). 
Petals .—As many free or united (wanting in A. squamata). 
Stamens. —Indefinite, usually very numerous, free or slightly connected at the base. 
Pod .—Linear or oblong, flat or nearly cylindrical, straight, falcate or variously twisted, opening 
in 2 valves or indehiscent. 
Seeds .—More or less flattened, usually marked in the centre of each face with an oval or horseshoe- 
shaped depression or opaque spot or ring, sometimes very obscure. 
Funicle .—Usually thickened into a fleshy aril under or round the seed. 
Trees, shrubs or undershrubs, with or without prickles or stipular spines. 
Leaves .—Twice pinnate or reduced to a simple phyllodium or dilated petiole. 
Flowers .—Usually yellow or white, in globular heads or cylindrical spikes, often polygamous. 
Botanical description.— Species A. melanoxylon, R.Br. in Ait. Hort., Kew ed. 
3, v, 462. 
A hard-wooded tree, attaining a very large size, but sometimes flowering when under 20 feet, 
glabrous or young shoots minutely pubescent; branchlets angular. 
Phyllodia. —Falcate-oblong or almost lanceolate, 3 to 4 inches long in common varieties, 1 to 1 inch 
broad, obtuse or rarely almost acute, much narrowed towards the base, coriaceous, with 
several longitudinal nerves and numerous anastomosing veins. 
Peduncles .—3 to 4 lines long, few together in a short raceme or sometimes solitary, bearing each 
a very dense globular head of 30 to 50 or more flowers, mostly 5-merous, and often 
so closely packed in the head that the calyces cohere. 
Calyx .—More than half as long as the corolla, thin, and shortly toothed. 
Petals .—Connate above the middle. 
Pod. —Elongated, flat, often curved in a circle, 3 to 4 lines broad, with thickened nerve-like 
margins. 
Seeds .—Nearly orbicular ; funicle very long, dilated and coloured from the base, very flexuose, 
more or less encircling the seed in double folds. 
