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the flowers are in spheres, but each of these is on a stalk of 

 its own, though two or three may occupy the same axil. In. 

 Sweet-scented Acacia and Blackwood the flowers are in 

 spheres on much-divided stalks, very much as in the 

 divided leaved plants. The first is a shrub with many 

 long, erect, angled branches with long narrow leaves 

 marked by a central rib; while Blackwood is a tree with 

 broad leaves that have not a central predominating rib. 

 False Boobyalla is a tree or shrub of the coast, with leaves 

 very like Blackwood, but very different arrangement of the 

 flowers. These are numerous and formed in long club-like 

 masses. The name of this plant is bad, as it is not only 

 no relation to, but is not at all like, the true Boobyalla, 

 which is a Myoporum. The only similarity is that they 

 both thrive on the coast. 



Of the spiney-leaved forms, unfortunately called 

 Mimosas, Spreading Mimosa has flowers arranged as in 

 Native Willow; Prickly Mimosa as in False Boobyalla; 

 Drooping Mimosa has long slender drooping branches with 

 the flowers, though many, not massed, but arranged singly 

 along the flower-stalks. 



People who have lived all their life in Australia, and 

 have from their childhood grown up amongst shrubs and 

 trees with restricted foliage, consider such a condition a 

 matter of course. But anyone arriving from such a humid 

 climate as England is greatly struck with the absence of 

 dense leafage, and consequently effective shade, also the 

 sombre tints of the forests. If you are caught in a shower 

 in the Old Country you stand under a tree till the rain 

 has passed ; but it would be a very insignificant fall that 

 a Gumtree or Wattle would protect you from ; also, in 

 intensely hot weather, it would be nearly as easy to get 

 sunstroke under a Eucalypt as it would in the open. In 

 quiet damp valleys and gullies foliage may abound, but 

 the general character of our Australian plants is that of 

 reduced leaves of thick texture, and this has an evident 

 meaning. The green surface of a plant is a matter of the 

 utmost importance. It is this surface that enables it to 

 perform the marvellous work characteristic of plant life, 

 namely, of constructing food from the simple substances 

 present in the atmosphere. It is to this green layer that 

 practically the whole of the plants and animals upon the 

 earth's surface are dependent for their living. It may 

 therefore be recognised that the larger the green surface 

 a plant can expose to light the greater quantity of food 

 will it be able to construct. The development of leaves 



