- 
ESCULENT PLANTS OF VAN DIEMEN'S LAND 
ON THE ESCULENT PLANTS OF: 
VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. 
( Continued from page 41. ) 
In regard to the Account of the most 
Common and Remarkable Indigenous 
plants of Van Diemen's Land, we shall 
confine ourselves to a few extracts re- 
Specting the more interesting kinds. 
Acacia decurrens, Black Wattle. This 
beautiful tree grows in almost all parts of 
the island, unfolding its whitish blossoms 
about midsummer: its bark is the best for 
tanning. The generic name of Acacia was 
given to a large division of the genus Mi- 
mosa by Willdenow ; no species of Mimosa 
(derived from the Greek mimos, a mimic, 
because it mimics animal sensibility, the 
leaves collapsing at a touch) properly so 
called, has yet been found in Van Diemen's 
Land. Many of the species produce gum 
abundantly, which is usefulin the shops; the 
Gum Arabic exudes from 4. vera, a stunt- 
ed tree, growing in most parts of Africa, 
but the gum exported to England is chiefly 
collected in Barbary. 
Acacia affinis, Silver Wattle. A much 
hardier tree than the foregoing, often at-: 
taining a large size in elevated situations. 
On the borders of the Hobart-Town Rivu- 
let there are some stupendous individuals 
of this species, rivalling in height, but far 
excelling in beauty, the large Gum-Trees 
CEucalyptus) among which they grow. It 
endures the winters of England, where its 
. elegant foliage and bright yellow globe- 
headed and fragrant flowers are much ad- 
mired. Ina garden at Exeter and another 
at Norwich, there are trees of it raised 
from seed sent from Hobart Town, from 
three to four yards high. The seeds were 
transmitted to England under the erroneous 
name of Black Wattle Mimosa. 
Acacia Melanozylon, Lightwood, or 
Blackwood. This tree obtains its first 
name from the gravity, and its second from 
the colour of its wood. It is much used 
for furniture, the butts of the trees being 
cut into beautiful veneers, or turned into 
finely-streaked snuff and other boxes. It 
x a peculiar to Van Diemen’s Land, and 
VOL. t1. 
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65 
grows to the largest size in the most moun- 
tainous and coldest situations. 
Acacia saligna? Willow-leaved Acacia 
A fragrant flowering species, forming a 
large shrub, and plentiful on the sides of 
rivulets. This, the A. Melanoxylon, 
and all the entire-leaved and prickly spe- 
cies are remarkable for bearing the pin- 
nated leaves on the young seedling plants, 
in connexion with the others, which, in a 
warm sunny day, when the tender pores 
‘are open, will often collapse at a touch, 
like the Mimosa of the tropics. 
Acena Sanguisorba, Native Burnet, 
and A. ovina, Round-headed Burnet. The 
former species grows also in New Zealand, 
and the latter is common in New South 
Wales. It is the plant which, when the 
seeds are ripe, in December and January, 
hooks the prickly thorns with which these 
are furnished, into the clothes and limbs of 
the traveller, and also to the fleeces of the 
sheep grazing through the bush; it is these 
thorns and the awny seed of the Kanga- 
roo Grass intermixed with the wool, and 
which no washing will remove, that depre- 
ciate the value of much that is sent to 
Europe, as well from Van Diemen’s Land 
as New South Wales. Hence the advan- 
tage of shearing the sheep as early in the 
season as possible, on the first approach of 
warm weather, rather than leave the ope- 
ration to a later period, when these injuri- 
ous seeds shall have come to maturity. 
The wool will then be comparatively clean, 
and the sheep being so recently clipped, 
the seeds, when ripe, will not be so ready 
to adhere and spoil the fleece of next year. 
Attention to this little circumstance would 
add at least 25 per cent. value to the wool 
sent from many parts of this island in the 
London market. It is to be observed, how- 
ever, that the close grazing which has pre- 
vailed in the sheep districts of Van Diemen's 
Land, for some years past, is not only gra- 
dually improving the pastures in fertility, — x 
but by preventing the grasses, &c. from 
seeding, and obliging them to propagate 
only by roots, leaves the surface free from 
those noxious particles that deteriorate the 
wool Until, however, a well-devised 
E ; 
