| farmer’s taste and care. 
ten weeks of spring and summer. 
ACACIA-TREE. 21 
looking pods, with deep contractions or compres- 
sions between their seeds. The Acacia pubescens 
or the downy acacia—also belonging to the greater 
sub-genus, and a native of New Holland—has 
leaves in from three to ten divisions, linear and 
very narrow leaflets in from six to eighteen 
couples, and stalked, globose, long racemes of yel- 
low flowers; and is one of the most graceful and 
elaborately elegant hothouse plants of Great 
Britain. The Acacia JSulibrissin or silk-tassel 
acacia—likewise a species of the greater sub- 
genus, and a native of Persia and some countries 
upon the Mediterranean—has leaves in from 
eight to twelve divisions, elongated and sharp- 
ened leaflets in about thirty couples, and magni- 
ficent clusters of lilac or rose-coloured flowers, 
arranged in a form which partakes of both the 
corymb and the panicle; it natively grows to be 
a tree of exquisite beauty, and flings up from its 
flowers long and slender stamens which stream 
in the breeze and glitter in the sunshine like tas- 
sels of silk ; and, in the extreme south of England, 
when trained against walls with a southern aspect, 
and cultivated with ordinary care, it thrives to 
perfection, and constitutes one of the richest or- 
naments of either a landowner’s or a gentleman- 
The Acacia Sophora or 
fragrant acacia—one of the species of the smaller 
or leafless division, and a native of Australia—has 
narrow, tapering leaf-stalks, dense and slender 
racemes of flowers, and long, curved, tapering 
seed-pods ; and, as cultivated in Great Britain, it 
forms a noble ornament to the green-house, or 
occasionally to the open border, and displays 
numerous heads of flowers during all the early 
months of the year. The Acacia longifolia or 
long-leafed acacia—also one of the species of the 
smaller division of acacias, yet ranked by some 
botanists among the mimose, and called Mimosa 
longifolia—has long, narrow, lance-shaped leaf- 
stalks, bears axillary spikes of flowers on short 
flower-stalks, grows well, in the south of Eng- 
land, in the open border of conservatories, attains 
there a height of from 12 to 14 feet, and bears a 
profusion of odoriferous flowers during nine or 
The superb 
and very numerous genus of acacia plants may 
be tolerably well understood from these speci- 
mens ; and it possesses interest to the farmer—not 
alone as an object of garden cultivation or of in- 
structive curiosity—but for its close relationship, 
in some particulars, to the various leguminous 
plants which constitute so large a portion of the 
crops raised upon his fields. The acacias are best 
propagated in this country from cuttings. The 
young wood should be taken off at a joint, and 
planted in a pot of sand under a bell-glass. They 
may also be propagated from the root, by plant- 
ing pieces in a light soil, leaving the top a little 
exposed, and placing the pots in a hot-bed. The 
best soil for this class of plants is a mixture of 
sandy loam and peat. 
ACACIA-TREE, or Locust-Tren, or Fatse- 
of hardy trees of the pea tribe. 
Acacts—botanically, Robinia. A beautiful genus 
They have pin- 
nate leaves, and bear nodding racemes of white 
or rose-coloured flowers; and, in general appear- 
ance, they occupy a sort of middle place between 
the mountain-ash and the larger division of the 
true acacia. The genus Robinia formerly included 
the species which now constitute the genus Cara- 
gana or Siberian pea-tree ; and it is distinguished 
from these species by the unequally pinnate form 
of its leaves, and the long, gibbous character of 
its legumes. The known species at present be- 
longing to it are designated, Pseud-acacia, amor- 
phefolia, crispa, microphylla, procera, sophorefolia, 
spectabulis, tortwosa, echinata, floribunda, formos- 
sussuma, dubia, inermis, hispida, and viscosa; and 
the most marked varieties or sub-species are de- 
signated longifolia, rubra, major, alba, gracilis, 
heterophylla, and pyramidalis,—the first of these 
varieties belonging to the species Tortuosa, the 
second to Inermis, the third to Hispida, the fourth 
to Viscosa, and the three others to Pseud-acacia. 
A number of other varieties, or at least acacia- 
trees with other names, are sold in the nurseries, 
and even advertised as distinct species ; but they 
possess no permanent or real characteristics, and _ 
are altogether unworthy of notice. 
By far the best known of the species, and that 
which will serve to illustrate all the others, is the 
pseud-acacia. It isa native of America; its seeds 
were first brought to Europe, from Canada, by 
M. Jean Robin, nurseryman to the king of France, 
and author ofa work entitled a ‘ History of Plants; 
it was first grown, in the Jardin des Plantes at 
Paris, by Vespasien Robin, the son of Jean Robin ; 
and it took its botanical name of Robinia from these | 
its introducers, and afterwards communicated 
that name to the whole of the genus. It was 
supposed by early British missionaries in America 
to be identical with a tree which grows in Asia, 
and which is believed to have nourished the 
locusts mentioned in scripture; and, in conse- 
quence, was designated by them the locust-tree. 
It occurs in Lower and Upper Canada, and in 
both the eastern aud the western states of North 
America, and grows in great abundance in the 
south-western states, particularly in the valleys 
of the Alleghany mountains; and it was one of 
the earliest of the valuable and exceedingly nu- 
merous contributions from America to the woods 
and shrubberies of Kurope. Its history, since its 
introduction, has been curious and singularly 
fluctuating; for the tree has at one time been 
utterly neglected, and at another propagated with 
almost the zeal of a mania,—at one time extolled 
for numerous and superlative excellencies, and at 
another denounced for insufferable and manifold 
worthlessness. The English gardeners very early 
obtained seeds of it from Virginia, and propagated 
it with considerable interest. Parkinson men- 
tions it in his ‘Theatre of Plants,’ published in 
1640; and says that it was grown to a great height 
by John Tradescant ; and Evelyn notices it in his 
