Dichrostachys
(from dichros, two-coloured, and stachys, a spike; in allusion to the lower flowers of each spike differing in colour from those above). ORD. Leguminosae. A small genus of four or five species of rigid stove shrubs, extending over tropical Africa and Asia, one being confined to Australia. Flowers, upper ones yellow, hermaphrodite; lower ones either white, pink, or purple, neuter. Leaves bipinnate; leaflets usually small. The under-mentioned is probably the only one yet in cultivation. For culture, see Mimosa. D. platycarpa (broad-podded). fl., the upper half of spike bright yellow, the other rose-coloured, produced in pendulous spikes about 1 1/2in. long. l. glaucous-green, bipinnate, with fourteen or more pairs of pinnae; leaflets from twenty-six to thirty pairs. Angola, 1866.