88 THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVl. 



referred to in an early paragraph as lining our rivers with borders 

 of gold. Though called "silver," from the silvery appearance of 

 its feathery foliage, " water-hide" would be both a poetic and a 

 more accurate popular name, for they flourish chiefly along our 

 streams or on the alluvial flats close by. For a typical scene of 

 Silver Wattles one need not go further than our home river, the 

 ever-flowing Yarra, where, say between Heidelberg and Eltham 

 or Warrandyte, in bend succeeding bend may be seen the yellow- 

 laden trees like curtains screening the stream, some of the 

 flowering tassels kissing the water on one side, while others, 

 bending over beds of pennyroyal and maiden-hair fern, sweep the 

 river's bank. Climb some adjacent hill or other coign of vantage 

 and gaze upon a huge letter S, which the river, lined with yellow, 

 has carved in the green landscape — such a scene may be witnessed 

 from the heights above Yarra Glen, and in a wattle season /;ar 

 excellence, as that of 1907, is worth travelling miles to see. In 

 other seasons the best of the flowering trees may be at intervals 

 more or less wide, or their beauty may be torn and shattered by 

 the winter's storms and floods. 



We might be tempted to satiate our dreamy senses amid the 

 scenes of Silver Wattles were not other wattles to be seen afield — 

 to wit, the splendid Green Wattle, Acacia normalis, which 

 flowers concurrently with its silver relation, to which it is closely 

 allied. This species flourishes on land away from water ; its 

 feathery foliage is art-green instead of silvery, and in season is 

 flowerful from the lowest branchlets that sweep the grass to the 

 topmost stem, a veritable glory of the bush, a pillar of perfume, 

 under whose shadow one might sit in an ecstasy of delight. The 

 Green Wattle abounds in the sandstone region around Sydney, 

 and brought to our own State does equally well on tiie sandstone 

 ridges of the Grampians. 



September sees the Golden Wattle, Acacia pycnantha, with its 

 stiff, eucalyptlike leaves — more properly phyllodes, quite different 

 to the bipinnate or feathery leaves of the previously mentioned 

 kinds — in full flower, each tree ablaze with bunches of furry 

 balls, each often the size of an ordinary marble, of the most 

 voluptuous shade of rich citron-yellow. It is a hardy species, and 

 thrives on auriferous country inland, on the rich chocolate soils 

 of some of our mountain ranges, or on the poorer coastal soils of 

 New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria. Speaking of 

 auriferous country, one wonders if the early squatters ever thought 

 that these glorious Golden Wattles were tokens of the precious 

 stores of gold below. Think of the rich yields of Ballarat, 

 Bendigo, Beaufort, and other places where this wattle flourishes. 

 But why call it " golden," when so many other kinds are golden 

 also when in bloom ? To this question there seems no reply. 

 Perchance it may be only a happy vernacular for a wattle that 



