November 1, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURSST. 
353 
I-IILLCOUNTEY PJ.ANTING EEPOET. 
“ HS BAiTLE Ol.i’ THE WATTLES.” 
THE B.ST TREES T) GROW FOE FUEL. 
I oome up here to fled the battle of the 
“ wattles ” • revived and raging, promieing almost 
to rival “ ihe battle of the gauges.” When about 
three years ago I had the pleamre of visiting Mr. 
Kellow’s fine and fertile estate of Albion, arijuining 
the reef of lime-tone bo rich in spinel sapphires, 
below Hakgaia, I remember we could scarcely ge' 
along the paths which had been cut on the patana 
from the abundance of the up-springing suckers from 
the roots of a wattle, which I suppose was Acacia 
(lealba a? Now Mr. Kellow cultivates in pro 
fcretioe a plant raised frum seed he obtained from- 
Australia as that of A. deciirrens, whiea grows 
rapidly into a good-size 1 tree, but which does not 
send up suckers from its roots. I am sorry I have 
not Mr. Kellow’s memorandum of a tree of th'S 
kind which Mr. Nook has at Hakgaia, and which 
at the age of seven years has attained large dimeo- 
sion.s, — 60 feet in height and 7 in girth near the 
root, I beheve. t Acacia decurrens, especially the 
variety known as mollissima, yields about the finest 
tanning bark in the world ; and although it might 
not pay us in Ceylon to grow this tree for its 
bark, yet, in cutting trees down for timber or tui 1, 
the bark might be stripped and saved. The Ioc>l 
tanners of bides or thote who have made taaoing 
hides a great industry at Madras might give a 
remunerative price for the bark. I am glad to 
see the specimen Mr. Kellow has sent, because it 
enables me to class as identical with it one of 
two magnificent Australian acacias which we have 
grown without knowing their names, but merely 
distinguishing them as the “golden flush” and 
the “ silvi'i flusu ” wattles. As far as foliage goes 
the former is the same ai Mr. K-fllow’s, and the 
other is probably A. dea/ijata, if, as seems to be 
the case, there is a variety of A. dealbata which 
grows into a large timber tree and does not send 
up suckers ? Our two gigantic wattles have never 
shown the slightest tendency to this latter habit. 
Here as in Australia several of the numerous 
acacias which bear golden-coloured flowers have 
I een indiscriminately called “golden wattles.” In 
Nuwara Eliya this name has been applied to a 
species which sends up suckers and which bus 
formed such a dense and shady grove near the 
Ohuroli. I am told that Dr. Trimeu has identified 
this tree as a dccnrre7it<, var. mollissima j The 
true golden wattle, A i>ijcnantha, however, is now 
grown in the furest nurseries in Nuwara Eliya, 
* xhe name is an old English one, and signifies the 
interlacing of boughs together to form a kind of 
wicker-work. The aboriginals used them iu the con- 
sfrucion of their iibodos, and the early oolonists used 
to sp it the stems of slender species into laths for 
■‘vvattliug" the walls of their rude habitations. — Maiden's 
Native I'lants of Ansti alia. 
t Mr. N ck was good enough to measure liis three 
giant trees in Hakgaia Gardens iu our presence the 
other day, with tho lollowing result : — 
A. decurrens — years old— 50 feet high, 7 feet 2 
inches iu ciroumtereuco a foot above tho ground, and 
5 leet U inches circum. 5 feet above ground. 
Ifni'.s lunijij jlia —11 years old — (j feet 8 iuchos and 
6 feet 4 inches iu circumference respectively at 1 and 
5 feet above ground. 
Cii^)ressus species) — 10 feet high— 9 feet and 7.',- ft. 
in ciroumioreuco at 1 and 5 feet above ground " re- 
spi otively— ago not certain.— E d. 7’. .1. 
J On rolereuoe, D.-. Trimeu is good eno igh to rejiort 
as follows : — “ So far as my memory goes the acacia 
iu (pie-stiou (uoar Nuwara Eliya church) is the silver 
and has an undivided leaf, instead of the feathery 
foliage of the “ golden wattle ” we have been re- 
ferring to. The true A. dealbata is, I suppose, 
the tree with silvery foliage, to be seen at and 
beyond Kellow's cottages, and which is specially 
remarkab'e for sending up groves of suckers from 
its rods. We have two “golden wattles ” here at 
Abbotsford, neither of which is d. pycnantha. One 
species we are propagating from seed which the 
trees have .yielleu. The foliage and the blossom 
are equallv beautiful, and some of the trees which 
were cut down yie cled excellent firewood, as I believe 
all the ivattles do. Of another speoies we have only 
one spocimen, and it is remarkable from its hori- 
zontal and contorted habit of growth. Its leaf is 
exactly that of H. •pycnantha, but the blossoms, 
instead of a series of little mimosa heeds along a 
stalk, are regular catkins, closely resembling those 
of the wi.Iow. This widf -speacling tree buist into 
full blossom recently, and “ magnificent ” is the 
only term which can describe the spec acle it 
presented. There are probably from 200 to 300 
acacias in Austral a, and a large proportion of them 
have golden hued and sweet scented blossoms. I 
can never forget the banks of the Mitchell river in 
Gippsland, both sides lined as it were with gold. 
The Australians when they go “ a-rnaying” (in 
fee month of January) carry home branches of 
golden-blossomf d watth s, iris'ead of the hawthorn 
of “ lioii'e,” which however flourish's exeeuhngly 
on tho banks of the D rwei.t, in Tasmania. It 
may be well to give a notioo of the specie i of 
acacias, nUive to Australia, of which we know 
most in Cevlon. 
A. the typical “golden watHe,” has 
been on'y recently introduced, and except as 
an ornamental plant it does not seem likely 
wattle, A. dealbata. I do n- t think that A decurrens 
or its variety mollis {= A. mollissima) bonds up suck- 
ers from the roots. Th- tlireo soi ts can ha readily 
rec'ignized by the young twigs of unopened foliage. 
In yl. dealbata (“silvtr wattle”) these are white 
and silvery ; iu A. mollissima (“ black wattle” or 
“green waitle” in Ansualia, but often “golden 
W!ittle”in Ceylon) tlioy are golden yellow; and iu A. 
deeurrens (also black or green wattle) they have but 
little silkiiiBSs and are merely pale green, yl. dealbata 
rarely op-'tis its flowers here and seems to be always iu 
bud. . 1 . mollissima has pale sulphur yello w blossoms 
succeed- (I by pods constricted between the seeds. Of 
true A. decurreyis there does not seem to be much in 
Nuwara E'iya and its neighbourhood.” Thcie is 
no doubt, we believe, that Mr. A. J. Kellow has 
now on Ijpper Albion a flue grove of the true yl. 
decurrens (me same tree as Mr. N ick’s giant in the 
H .kgala Gardens) cultivated on pttana land ; and the 
growth made iu three year.s is so great that already 
Mr. Kellow has been able to cut down trees for the posts 
and ratters of someliues he is building. His chief object 
inplanting this acacia was a windbeIt,for ■which the tree 
has proved itself admirably adapted. The grove runs 
straig'ht up hill, and it has become so conspicuous as to 
be- a l.audmark seen from the side of Nimunakniakouda 
or the neighbourhood of Baduda, as Mr. Nock was able 
to tell us. We must mention one other fact : we received 
at Naseby some seed from Me-'-srs. J. P. William 
& Bros, of Heuaratgoda, and one picket marked yi. de- 
currens was identical with seed received the 
same day from the manager of Abbotsford (given 
as a wattle that did not thr.iw up suck- r.s), and both 
packets were, we believe, rc-cogni od by Messrs. Neck 
and Kellow ns of theriyht acacia (decurrens). Still, 
it may not bo safe to trust to seed, and now that 
Dr. Trimen lias given a ready means of recugui-ing 
the three wattles so apt to be eontouuded, there ought 
to be less doubt as to their identity in the future. It 
is just po.ssible that Mr. K dlow's trees, the Abbotsford 
and llruaratgoda seed may belong to yl. decurrens var. 
mollissima, as it again throws up(uo shoots? — E d. T. A, 
