570 BOTAXICAL NOTES OX QUEENSLAND, 



Queensland I found a great difficulty in finding out wliat Brigalow 

 signified. The only attempt at an explanation is in the excellent 

 Treasury of Botany, but there the account is given by one who 

 had evidently never seen the scrub referred to, and took his 

 description from others. Yet it is not very difficult to characterize 

 it and it is very uniform in its features wherever it is met w^ith. 

 Brigalow is an Acacia forest where the trees are of good height 

 and size, seldom rising more than about 100 feet above the ground. 

 The species in most places is A. JiarpojyJii/Jla, P. v. Muell. The 

 name is derived from the sickle-shape of the leaves w^hich more- 

 over are of a peculiar bluish grey colour. This gives the scrub 

 a silky or hoary appearance never to be mistaken, and thus one 

 can tell a clump of Brigalow at some considerable distance. The 

 bark is dark brown, very rough and furrowed and the general 

 habit of the tree is sordid and straggling. In j^oor soils this is 

 especially so, but in the rich black volcanic soils, it does not so 

 readily become a tree, but rises up in a luxuriant dome of foliage 

 from the ground. The sap-wood is yellow and somewhat soft, 

 but the duramen or heart- wood is of a rich purple-brown colour, 

 emitting a fragrant odour of rosewood when fresh cut. This is 

 a character which it shares with many Acacia trees. 



This tree Acacia liarpopliylla is the only one which is recognised 

 as Brigalow. There are two or three other species of Acacia 

 always found near it, but they are never called Brigalow, and this 

 species moreover is so very marked in its characters that it can- 

 not be mistaken for any other. The bluish-grey appearance, the 

 long sickle-shaped rigid leaves and the rough furrowed bark 

 when once seen will always be readily recognised. Near the 

 scrubs of the Expedition Eange I remember seeing a large 

 quantity of Brigalow where the leaves from some cause were pale 

 yellowish-brown. This I should say was a variety ; but even 

 then there was no mistaking the Brigalow from its other characters. 

 The scrubs formed of these trees are very dense as they grow 

 onl}'^ close together. Generally speaking there is a tangled under- 



