Xov., 1909.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 93 



Millswyn-street, South Yarra. The city fathers of Prahran have 

 permitted by way of experiment the planting of a street with this 

 wattle, and should they succeed the next generation of citizens 

 may be able to stroll under " Elata " groves instead of " Elm " 

 and other groves as at present. Think of the splendour and 

 delightfulness of these " Elata " groves in a hot January, when 

 the umbrageous trees shade our streets and the delicate 

 perfume from the top crested with large pale yellow flowers 

 is wafted through open doors and windows and permeates our 

 dwellings. 



When the burning beams of a summer sun are drying up the 

 land during " fiery February," when many trees and shrubs 

 languish in the heat and fallen leaves crumple and crackle under 

 foot, another wattle, the proper Lightwood Wattle, Acacia 

 ijuplexa, is gay, if not gorgeous, with its shining foliage intermixed 

 with yellowish-white furry balls. The leaves are crescent or 

 sickle-shaped in form, and the tree is sometimes mistaken for the 

 Blackwood, which, however, grows in generous soil, alluvial 

 tracts, while the Lightwoods love the hills and such like 

 localities as the rocky battlements of the famous Werribee 

 Gorge, where their rotund forms may be seen, supported by 

 rough-barked, twisted stems, standing firmly with rock- 

 encrusted roots. 



The Willow Wattle of Riverina, Acacia salicina, also some- 

 times flowers during " fiery February," when the drought-stricken 

 earth seems to have put off all its beauty. At such a time the 

 River Murray, great in winter, is below summer level, and well-nigh 

 stationary, with shoaling sands and submerged snags, the latter as 

 seen through the transparent water bearded with green filamentous 

 algse ; yet not far distant may be seen splendid specimens of the 

 Willow Wattle, shapely in form, gracefully draped with pendulous 

 branches of fine-leaved foliage, each branchlet as it droops being 

 dotted with greenish-white flowers, which emit a somewhat 

 pungent perfume — a strong tree with a strong scent. When the 

 seeds are fully ripe the long containing pods, half open, expose 

 unusually large black seeds, each surrounded by a bright 

 vermilion rim — fit embryos of one of the largest of our wattle 

 trees. 



Many wattles bloom in March, and to match the month, so far 

 as initials go, we have one known as the Maiden Wattle, Acacia 

 JIaideni, named by the late Baron von Mueller after Mr. J. H. 

 Maiden, F.L.S., Director of the Sydney Botanic Gardens, and an 

 ardent lover of wattles. The Maiden Wattle belongs to the 

 Blackwood and Lightwood series, but with lengthened flowers 

 instead of globular. It is a native of New South Wales, and has 

 been introduced to Victoria, where it does well. It may be seen 

 in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, and at Armadale last season 



