August 21.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 319 
« 
growth can be reared to supply their place, when the 
possessor's taste becomes more fastidious. From the 
impetus that the Crystal Palace tvill give to the building 
of glass houses, I hope yet to live long enough to 
j witness groves of these, and many more Australasian 
plants, planted out in the soil, and room afforded for 
the display of their natural proportions; not by coddliug 
them with tropical heat and moisture in our dark and 
cold days in winter, as some of our learned critics say 
we must do, in order to show their vast cleverness in 
knocking down a practice which nothing but their own 
wisdom would ever have thought of setting up, but by 
giving them, the plants I mean, merely as much arti¬ 
ficial heat as would keep them and their visitors from 
the pelting storm, and a few degrees safe from the 
freezing point. Many of the species of this genus are 
so strong-growing, and so graceful from their beautiful 
| pinnated foliage, as to lay no mean claim to central 
places in such a Palace. Rut, keeping more at present 
to the limits within our reach, I shall select a few out of 
the many that are well worthy of being cultivated in 
pots; merely remarking that the plants will not suffer in 
winter in a temperature of from 35° to 45°, more esj)e- 
cially if tire wood has been hardened by a fair portion 
of sunshine, and a diminished supply of water, the 
previous autumn. 
With one or two exceptions the whole of the hardy 
kinds of Acacia are fitted for a cool greenhouse, or those 
narrow houses in front of walls, covered with glass in 
winter, and removed in summer, which one day will be 
anything but scarce. With few exceptions the colour 
of the flowers is yellow, and these flowers again are 
arranged into single globular heads, or again along the 
branch in the way of a raceme, or a cylindrical spike. 
The great proportion of those fitted for pot-culture 
have a tough, leathery-like foliage,—in fact, it is not 
foliage at all, though answering the same purpose, 
but an enlargement of the petiole of the leaf,—into 
what, in many cases, looks like a leaf,—and hence is 
termed a Phylloid. This is even deemed by botanists 
the true term for the pinnae in the beautiful pinnated 
species of the genus. In all the group, true leaves are 
formed when raising them from seed, but as growth 
progresses, they drop, and the phylloid takes their place. 
The first I mention is as remarkable as any in this 
respect, as all the younger parts of the shoots may be 
considered as so many phylloids: I allude to A.alata. 
Before mentioning a few more worthy of particular atten¬ 
tion, I may allude to the surmise, that as the leaves of all 
the family are persistent and evergreen, and become in 
general very much dried before they drop, the plants, 
| so far as they themselves are concerned, cannot derive 
a great amount of nourishment from decomposing vege¬ 
table matter, at all proportionate to what deciduous 
trees in our climate do from the decomposition of their 
own foliage. Rather poor soil would thus seem to be 
pointed out as most suitable for the growth of the 
Acaciads; and, certainly, so far as their culture in pots 
is concerned, they seem to thrive best when no organic 
matter of decomposed animal origin comes into contact 
with them. But, on the other hand, such veiy hungry, 
sandy soil as they are found in, most frequently, in New 
Holland, would not be quite suitable in our limited 
pot-room, for we neither could give the roots the same 
space to traverse, nor command the same clear sunlight, 
which enables them to decompose and assimilate what 
the roots may absorb from great distances, nor yet those 
continuous rains which, to a great extent, make up for 
f the long droughts to which such plants, in a state of 
nature, are liable. Natural localities and circumstances 
must ever be studied for giving us first principles of 
treatment; these acquired, we must modify them to 
suit our circumstances. For instance, we rest many 
plants in our winters as the best make-shift; where we 
to imitate nature exactly, we would often give the rest 
in the driest and hottest period of our summer; and 
some things cannot be coaxed out of this, but will have 
it, to flourish and bloom freely. 
Acacia alata. —A winged-stemmed species, with dilated 
leaf stalks, and a spine at the points, and single flowers 
profusely placed at the angles of these stalks. A most 
interesting plant, blooming freely when eighteen inches 
high, and continuing to do so, as a large specimen, 
some six to ten feet in height. Flowers freely from 
February to July. 
A. juniperina (Juniper-like). — A plant with small- 
pointed phylloids, flowers coming principally from their 
axils, and produced rather freely but singly, growing 
from three to ten feet in height, and flowering generally 
from March to June. 
A. urticifolia and verticillata are synonymes of this, 
or so much alike, that they may be considered such for 
all practical purposes. 
A. taxifolia (Yew-leaved).—A neat plant, with small 
leathery-like leaves, or phylloids, and producing flowers 
freely, growing from three to six feet in height. Ensi- 
folia, and undulatfolia, flower about the same time, from 
March to July, and with the slight variation in the 
foliage, as the names indicate, there being little other 
difference; all of these flower freely, when from one- 
and-a-half to six feet in height. 
A. armata. —So called from each phylloid, or leaf, 
being armed with spines at its base. One of the most 
beautiful and useful of the group, from the intense rich 
green of its foliage, and the golden, orange colour of its 
flowers, produced from the base of almost every leaf, 
and flowering freely when a foot or 18 inches high, as 
it continues to do when a bush of some 10 feet in height, 
and five to six feet in diameter. It constitutes a good 
sale plant in London when about 18 inches in height. 
It flowers generally from January to June, and yields, 
thus, its showy blossoms at a period when flowers are 
most required. If the young wood is early ripened in 
summer, so as to set the flower-buds, with or without a 
slight forcing, it will bloom during the whole of the 
winter months. In cold greenhouses, constructed upon 
the lean-to principle, where the covering of the back 
walls becomes a matter of importance, I can safely re¬ 
commend this plant as one well fitted for such a situa¬ 
tion, provided it is not too closely pruned, but enough 
of young shoots procured to stand out a little from the 
tree; these, if well ripened in summer, will be masses of 
golden-orange in the following spring, relieved by the 
dark foliage as a background. In summer and winter, 
when not in bloom, few things could be more agreeable 
than the beautiful deep green of the plant. As a proof 
of its fitness for such a place, where no great artificial 
heat was given, I may mention, that in-warm situations, 
both in England and Scotland, it has frequently passed 
a winter unscathed, against a wall, with but slight pro¬ 
tection. 
A.decipiens (Deceiving).—With leaves as if the points 
were bitten off. A dwarf plant, flowering when from 
one to five feet in height. 
A. diffusa (Spreading) and prostrata (Lying down).— 
Both, seemingly, synonymes of each other, with small 
liuear phylloids, and of rather a drooping, trailing habit. 
From one to three feet in height, and producing its 
globe-likc flowers rather freely. 
A. stricta (Upright growing).—With longish phyl¬ 
loids, and much broader than the last, and flowering 
very freely. May be managed successfully in a pot; it is 
from 15 inches to six feet in height. Beyond the larger 
size indicated it is difficult to keep any of the sorts 
mentioned in good healthy flowering condition in pots; to 
have them healthy and larger they should be planted out. 
A. falcata (Sickle-leaved).—A good deal similar to 
ensifolia, mentioned above. 
