1698 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



1 1 ft. in girth ; but usually much smaller. Young branchlets angled, hoary, covered 

 with a minute whitish pubescence. Stipules reduced to inconspicuous scales. 

 Leaves equally bipinnate ; rachis 3 to 4 in. long, hoary and pubescent like the 

 branchlets, often glandular ; pinnae ten to twenty pairs, hoary and pubescent, each 

 bearing thirty to forty pairs of crowded linear leaflets, which are about ^ in. long, 

 pubescent, glandular at the sessile base. 



Flower heads, in axillary and terminal panicled racemes, globose, yellow, 

 about ^ in. in diameter ; flowers twenty to thirty in a head, mostly pentamerous. 

 Pods, straight or curved, flattened, 2 to 3 in. long, i to ^ in. wide, not or slightly 

 constricted between the seeds, glaucous on both surfaces. 



A. dealbata, which is known in Australia as the silver wattle, occurs in New 

 South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. It is widely distributed in Tasmania, where 

 it usually attains 50 ft. in height and 3 to 6 ft. in girth ; and yields a timber of little 

 value, which is used for making staves of cheap casks. The bark is not so rich in 

 tannin as that of typical A. decurrens} of which species A. dealbata is considered 

 to be a variety by Maiden. 



A. dealbata was introduced from Tasmania about 1820; and is now much 

 cultivated on the Riviera for its flowers, which are sent in large quantities to Paris 

 and London, under the popular name of " Mimosa." In France this species 

 flourishes on the west coast as far north as Nantes, where, however, it is killed to 

 the ground in severe winters, but nevertheless sends up shoots afterwards with 

 increased vigour.^ (A. H.) 



In England,' it can be grown in the open air in the south-west; and has 

 attained 50 ft. in height after seventeen years growth from seed at Abbotsbury, 

 where it produces flowers annually in great abundance and good seed, from which 

 plants have been raised. At Trebah in Cornwall there is a fine tree of about the 

 same age.* In Ireland, the finest we know is at Derreen (Plate 376), and is believed 

 by the Marquess of Lansdowne to have been planted about thirty-two years. 

 When I measured it in 19 10, it was 48 ft. high, with four stems measuring 2 ft. i in. 

 to 2 ft. 7 in. in girth. 



This species is now completely naturalized in the Nilgiris,' where it is useful 

 for firewood. Gamble says that it is readily reproduced by suckers and coppice 

 shoots. In France it does not thrive on soils containing lime.* (H. J. E.) 



' Typical A. decurrens has branchlets and foliage, which are nearly glabrous and not hoary ; and is known in Australia 

 as Green or Black Wattle. A plant, imported from Johannesburg, has been growing since 1909 in the open air at Blackmoor, 

 Liss, Hants, and is now about 4 ft. high. A. decurrens, var. mollis, Lindley, has tomentose foliage, but the pubescence 

 assumes a golden yellow tinge on the branchlets. 



^ Cf. Maiden, Forest Flora N.S. Wales, iii. 60 (1908). 



^ A tree in the Temperate House at Kew is about 50 ft. high, but with a slender stem, about 6 in. in diameter ; the 

 bark is broken on the surface into small scales. In Gard. Citron, liii. 45 (1913) mention is made of a tree, 70 ft. high and 

 2 ft. 2 in. in girth, growing in the conservatory at Branksome Hall, Darlington, which was raised from a root-cutting 

 twenty-five years ago. 4 Card. Chron. Iii. 44 (19 12). 



5 Brandis, in Indian Forester, viii. 26 (1882), quotes General Morgan's account of the remarkable change in the period 

 of flowering of this species in the Nilgiris, where it was introduced by seed in 1845. The trees here flowered at first in 

 October, which is the month in which the parents flower in Australia. In i860, they began to flower in September ; in 1870, 

 they flowered in August ; in 1878, in July ; and in 1882, in June, which is the spring month in the Nilgiris corresponding 

 with October in Australia. 



8 Cf. Mottet, in Rev. Hort. 1896, p. 503. 



