Familiar Indian Flowers: with Coloured Plates/Acacia Farnesiana

THE accompanying plate exhibits what is, perhaps, hardly a garden flower, but as it is very well known, and is certainly a picturesque object, it may undoubtedly be classed among our familiar flowers.

It is a small thorny jungle tree, but during the cold season, when in blossom and covered with its soft bright yellow down-like flowers, it is much to be admired. Ferminger describes the flowers as “tassel-like, and of the size and form of a bullet.”

The delightful aromatic fragrance of these flowers is one of the charms of having it in a hedge, and even after the flowers have been cut some time the scent remains. It somewhat resembles the odour of wallflower.

Roxburgh’s description of this shrub is as follows: “Shrubby; thorns, stipulary; leaves, bipinnate; pinnæ, from four to five pairs; leaflets, from ten to fifteen pairs; spikes, axillary; long-peduncled, round; colollebs, polyandrous; legumes, turgid, with two rows of seeds inclosed in pulp.”

The natives make use of this plant medicinally, considering the bark efficacious in cases of fever and debility.

The blossoms and fine bipinnate leaves remind us of another species of the Mimoseæ, viz., the "Sensitive Plant," so well known in this country from the difficulty of eradicating it if it once takes root in a garden. The tassel-like flowers, however, of this are pale pink.

The subject of our plate is constantly planted on the banks of tanks; its foliage is so light and pretty that it makes a great addition to the otherwise ugly and barren sides.

The flowers are soon destroyed by wind or rain, but when in full blossom fresh ones appear to burst open in such rapid succession that the blaze of colour is perpetual and unvarying.

The different species of Acacia are so numerous that it would be futile to attempt to enumerate them. Many are natives of Australia, where, I hear, they are remarkable for the exquisite beauty of their flowers and foliage.

In Ootacamund a few of the above varieties are found to thrive well, but they are not suited to the climate of the plains.