4 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



give shades of colour proportionate in tint to the percentage of 

 tannin. Bark chiefly employed for lighter leather. This tree is 

 distinguished from the Black Wattle by the silvery or rather ashy 

 hue of its young foliage ; it flowers early in spring, ripening its 

 seeds in about 5 months, while the Black Wattle occurs chiefly on 

 drier ridges, blossoms late in spring or at the beginning of summer, 

 and its seeds do not mature in less than about 14 months. This 

 hardy Acacia could doubtless, for tan purposes, be remuneratively 

 reared so far north as the Channel-Islands. It was cut down by frost 

 during an unusually severe winter in the Isle of Wight, but sprung up 

 again from the root [Ewbank]. It bears more cold than A. 

 decurrens, A. mollissima and A. pycnantha. At Abbazia in Adriatic 

 Austria it endured a transient temperature of 14 F. [F. Abel]. 



Acacia decurrens, Willdenow. 



The Black or Green Wattle of New South Wales, extending to 

 the southern part of Queensland and North-Eastern Victoria. 

 Finally a middle-sized tree, closely resembling A. mollissima in 

 appearance as well as in usefulness, and many of the notes given 

 under that species apply also to this. Its leaflets are longer and further 

 apart and its flowering time is earlier. The wood is comparatively 

 light, tough, used principally for staves, also for rustic seats and 

 supplies an excellent fuel. The principal value of the tree consists 

 however in its bark, which is one of the best for tanning in the whole 

 world ; Mr. J. H. Maiden, the Director of the Sydney Technological 

 Museum obtained 48'74 per cent, of extract and 32'33 per cent, of 

 catechu-tannic acid from it; the Queensland Commissioners for the 

 Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886 reported the contents as: 

 extract 26'78 per cent., tannin 15-08 percent.; discrepancies ascribable 

 to different localities. The Hon. Dr. J. Cox considers it inferior to 

 that of A. mollissima. The tree yields gum copiously which is fit 

 for glueing. It is sometimes used instead of isinglass for making 

 jellies, also employed by tanners, with admixture of glue, for sizing 

 leather [J. H. Maiden]. 



Acacia erubescens, Welwitsch. 



Western Tropical Africa. A small tree only, but affording the 

 best gum in Angola and the nearest regions [Dr. Welwitsch]. 

 Tropical Acacias have proved hardy in the mild extra-tropic zones, 

 thus also this species might merit introduction elsewhere. Another 

 Acacia of Western Africa, the "Alma," particularly occurring in 

 Damaras, bears a profusion of reddish pods, which form a nutritious 

 food, not only for pasture-animals, but even for the nomadic natives. 

 The Ahna occasionally attains a height of 100 feet and a stem- 

 circumference of 30 feet. The bark yields strong tan [T. Christy]. 



Acacia estrophiolata, F. v. Mueller. 



Central Australia. A tree, attaining a height of 30 feet and a 

 stem-diameter of 1 foot, enduring the extreinest of dry heat ; suitable 



