103 



Acacia salicina, Lindl. 

 THE COOBA (AND UMBRELLA BUSH). 



Botanical Name. Salicina, Latin, salix, salicis, a Willow, and hence 



* willow-like/' but this name is most applicable to the variety varians. 



Vernacular Name. "Umbrella Bush." 



There are three more or less distinct forms of this species: 



(a) The normal form, which may be termed a big Umbrella Bush. 

 (1)} Var. varians, Benth., a fair-sized tree. 



O) Yar. Waya>, Maiden, Proc. Roy. Soc. S.A., xxxii, 277 (1908), a 

 small Umbrella Bush, belonging to South Australia so far as is 

 known at present. 



(a) Normal Form. 



The type was collected 30th March, 1836, near Oxley and G. W. Evans' 

 marked tree on the Lachlan, New South Wales. 



Al'nrifiiini/ Xames. " Muntharra." Lake Eyre natives eat seed (W. Bald- 

 win Spencer) ; " Wirrha," Cooper's Creek, near Lake Eyre (A. W. Howitt) ; 



- Kakooroo" or " Wurra " (Max Koch). ( Wurra " and "Wirrha" are 

 evidently the same word.) All the above in use in. South Australia. 



Leaves. This is one of the species whose leaves are used to burn for the 

 ash which the aborigines mix with the Pituri, their masticatory. 



Flowers. Of a bright yellow colour, in contradistinction to the paler, 

 .sparser flowers of var. varians. 



Fruit. The pods are fleshy. 



Exudations. " We found a curious, willow-like Acacia, with the leaves 

 sliirhtly covered with bloom, and sprinkled on the underside with numerous 

 reddish minute drops of resin" (Mitchell). This species also exudes a 

 soluble gum from the bark. The genus Acacia therefore produces both a 

 gum and a resin. 



Size. A tall shrub up to about 8 or 10 feet high, and very umbrageous. 



Habitat. Extensively diffused in the drier parts of the Australian States. 



As regards New South Wales, the " Flora Australiensis " quotes it as on 

 the Lachlan, and thence to the Barrier Range, A. Cunningham, Mitchell, 

 Victorian Expedition, &c.; Liverpool Plains, Leichhardt. 



To which may be added the following notes from specimens in the 

 National Herbarium, Sydney: 



Xi'w South Wales. On red soil only, Bourke district. Grows about 8 

 feet high, with branches touching the ground and spread out like an um- 

 brella (A. W. Mullen); Paroo River (E. Betche). 



(5) Variety varians, Benth. 



This is a tree, and the only form which yields timber. 



Vernacular Names. The " Cooba," or " Koobah," of the aborigines and 

 colonists of western New South Wales. " Native Willow " is another 

 name. Called " Broughton Willow " in South Australia. " Gurley or 

 Curley tree" of the Bogan, New South Wales (A. W. Mullen). 



Aboriginal Names. Mitchell calls it " Goobang," perhaps really the same 

 as " Cooba," the modern name. About the Castlereagh River (New South 



