464 XXIII. LEGUMINOSAE 



among the acacias, and Maiden quotes yields of 32 to 36 per cent, of tannic 

 acid in bark samples. Analyses of Nilgiri bark samples of the typical variety 

 made at the Indian Institute of Science in 1912 gave 24-42 per cent, of tannin. 

 In India it is nowhere plentiful enough to yield regular supplies of bark in 

 quantity. 



This species (or variety) is a native of Queensland, New South Wales, 

 Victoria, and Tasmania. It is far less plentiful in the Nilgiris than A. dealhata ; 

 it has been planted in fair abundance along roads in Coonoor, but is not so 

 common at Ootacamund, and is comparatively rare in the plantations. Its 

 general habits in the Nilgiris are somewhat similar to those of A. dealhato 

 described below ; it reproduces well by coppice-shoots and root-suckers, but 

 not so freely as that species. Its growth is more erect than that of A. dealhata. 



(2) Acacia dealhata, Link. (^. fZecwrrens,Willd., var. f/ea76a/a, Von Mueller 

 ex Maiden.) Silver wattle. An evergreen tree with grey, sometimes silvery 

 bark. Young branchlets angled, hoary, covered with minute pubescence ; 

 foliage also hoary. Flower-heads in profuse axillary and terminal panicled 

 racemes, globose, about 0-15-0-2 in. in diameter, deep saffron yellow, strongly 

 scented. Pods straight or curved, flattened, 2-3 in. long by 0-25-0-5 in. 

 broad, broader and less constricted between the seeds than in A. deciirrens ; 

 decurrence of leaf -stalks less marked than in the latter. Maiden regards A. 

 dealhata as merely a variety of A. decurrens. 



In Australia it ordinarily attains a height of 50 ft. and a girth of 3-6 ft. ; 

 in Tasmania a tree has been recorded about 100 ft. in height and 11 ft. 2 in. 

 in girth. In the Nilgiris it seldom attains a height of over 40 ft. or a girth of 

 over 4 ft. In Australia the timber is considered of little value, and is used 

 chiefly for making cheap cask-staves. In the Nilgiris it is used as fuel, for 

 which purpose it is considered good. The bark is not so rich in tannin as that 

 of A. decurreyis. Maiden says that in Australia the best samples of bark 

 contain about 25 per cent, of tannic acid. Analyses of Nilgiri bark made at 

 the Indian Institute of Science in 1912 showed 9-56 per cent, of tannin. 



The tree is a native of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and 

 Tasmania. It has been extensively planted in the Mediterranean Riviera and 

 elsewhere. In India it has become thoroughly naturalized in the Nilgiri and 

 Palni hills, and has been planted in the Himalaya. 



In the Nilgiris this tree, together with the blue gum, is one of the most 

 characteristic features of the vegetation from 5,000 ft. upwards. One of its 

 most striking peculiarities is its extraordinary power of reproduction by root- 

 suckers, which come up in dense masses of thin whippy shoots, and spread 

 with great facility. For this reason it is almost unrivalled as a means of 

 clothing unstable hill slopes ; in the neighbourhood of gardens, however, it 

 is an intolerable nuisance owing to its powers of spreading and the diflficulty 

 of eradicating it, which is possible only by deep hoeing and extraction of all 

 the roots. Another peculiarity of this tree in the Nilgiris is its stragghng 

 and sometimes almost recumbent habit of growth, erect trees being quite excep- 

 tional. It is very liable to breakage from wind. In the Nilgiris it has proved 

 an excellent under-story to the eucalyptus in the grass-land type of plantations, 

 where a soil-protective undergrowth is desirable : it appears to stand the light 

 shade of the eucalyptus well, and reproduces freely by coppice. Fig. 174 



