584 FOREST CULTURE AND 
gold, and diffusing fragrance widely through the air. 
To me 300 Acacias appear far more valuable than 300 
varieties of particular fancy flowers, at least ina young 
botanic garden, where their names, their native coun- 
tries, and perhaps even the uses of many could be 
learned. From the arborescent species of Wattles 
we might secure, by a judicious selection for copious 
planting, successively through all seasons, masses of 
flowers along whole tree-lines or copses. Thus our 
Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) early unfolds its 
flower-trusses on river-banks; then follows our Gold- 
en Wattle (Acacia pycnantha), to be succeeded by the 
spreading Willow Wattle (Acacia saligna) from West- 
ern Australia, and this, in turn, gives way to the 
flowers of the Black Wattle (Acacia decurrens) on our 
ridges ; while the Blackwood-tree (Acacia melanoxy- 
lon ), as well as Acacia implexa, A. penninervis, and 
many others, bloom later in the season, to keep up 
this imposing and grateful floral display, while A. 
retinodes remains ever flowering all the time. But, 
for industrial purposes, many of these Acacias become 
of far more than ordinary interest. Catechu, tanners’ 
bark,* gum, galls, scents, and woods of various quali- 
ties are obtained from them ; others serve for hedges ; 
but, as regards oddness and strange diversity of foli- 
age, there is no other genus in the wide range of the 
vegetable empire which is equally remarkable. The 
harvest of seeds from such an array of showy plants of 
easy growth is usually most copious and valuable in 
itself. For scientific and yet gay aggregation the na- 
tive genera Pulteneea and Daviesia, both familiar to 
us here, offer respectively 75 and 55 species ; Hibber- 
*From which a concentrated extract may be prepared. 
