A large family, most of them tropical; herbs, shrubs, or trees; leaves
alternate, generally compound, usually with two or three leaflets;
flowers small, regular and perfect, in clusters; calyx with three to
six lobes or teeth; petals of the same number, separate, or more or
less united, neither sepals nor petals overlapping in the bud; stamens
as many as the petals, or twice as many, or numerous, separate or
united; ovary superior; fruit a pod.
There are several kinds of Calliandra, low shrubs or herbs.
[Sidenote: =Fairy Dusters=
_Calliándra eriophýlla_
=Pink
Spring
Arizona=]
An odd little shrub, pretty and very Japanese in character, about a
foot tall, with a few, pale-gray, spreading branches and very scanty
foliage. The small leaves are cut into many tiny leaflets and look
like those of a Mimosa, the buds are deep pink and the flowers are in
clusters towards the ends of the branches and slightly sweet-scented.
They are very queer-looking, but exceedingly pretty, for the purplish
calyx and corolla are so small that the flower appears to be merely a
tuft of many stamens, about an inch long, with threadlike filaments,
white at base and shading to bright pink at the tips. The pistil is
also long and pink, so the whole effect is a bunch of pink fuzz, airy
in form and delicately shaded in color. These little shrubs sometimes
bloom when they are only a few inches high, looking very quaint,
like dwarf plants in a toy garden, and are among the earliest spring
flowers.
[Illustration: Desert Senna--Cassia armata.]
[Illustration: Fairy Dusters--Calliandra eriophylla.]