4 



SELECT PLANTS READILY ELIGIBLE 



Lightwood. In irrigated valleys of deep soil the tree will 

 attain a height of eighty feet, with a stem several feet in 

 diameter. The wood is most valuable for furniture, railway 

 carriages, boat-building, casks, billiard-tables, pianofortes 

 (for sound-boards and actions), and numerous other pur- 

 poses. The fine-grained wood is cut into veneers. It takes 

 a fine polish, and is considered almost equal to Walnut. 

 Our best wood for bending under steam. For further details 

 refer to the volumes of the Melbourne Exhibitions of 1862 

 and 1867. 



Acacia pendula, All. Cunningham. 



New South Wales and Queensland. Generally in marshy- 

 tracts of the interior. One of the Myall-trees. 



Acacia pycnantha, Bentham.* 



Victoria and South Australia. Though frequent in many 

 parts of our colony, this tree, known as the Golden Wattle,, 

 deserves even here extensive cultivation, mainly for the sake 

 of its bark, rich in tannin. It is of rapid growth, will 

 succeed even in sandy tracts, and yields seeds copiously, 

 which germinate with the greatest ease. One of the most 

 important trees for binding waste sands. It is never a large 

 tree. By improved methods the fragrant oil of the flowers 

 could doubtless be fixed, though its isolation might be 

 dif&cult and unremunerative. Experiments in the writer's 

 laboratory have shown that the perfectly dried bark contains 

 about 25 per cent, of mimosa-tannin. The aqueous infusion 

 of the bark can be reduced by boiling to a dry extract, 

 which in medicinal and other respects is equal to the best 

 Indian catechu, as derived from Acacia catechu and A. 

 sundra. It yields approximately 30 per cent., about half of 

 which or more is mimosa tannic acid. This catechu is also 

 of great use for preserving against decay articles subject to 

 exposure in water, such as ropes, nets, fishing-lines, &c. 

 While, according to Mr. Simmons, the import of the bark of 

 oaks and hemlock-spruce into England becomes every year 

 less, and while the import of sumach and gambir does not 

 increase, the annual demand has, since the last twenty years, 

 become doubled. Probably, no other tanning plants give so 

 quick a return in cultivation as our Acacia pycnantha, and 

 particularly A. decurrens. 



Acacia saligna, Wendland. 



South- West Australia, where it is 'the principal tree chosen 

 for tanner's bark. It is a wide-spreading small tree, fit for 

 avenues. The bark contains nearly 30 per cent, of mimosa- 

 tannin. 



