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Fruits. The pods often very abundant, and they are eagerly eaten by sheep. 
They also supply human food. Miss M. A. Clements, of Palesthan, Condobolin, 
informed me that the local blacks used to pound the seeds and eat them in the form 
of a sort of raw paste. 
Gum. Many years ago Mr. H. G. Smith and I reported on a sample collected 
at Nelyambo, Darling River, New South Wales. It had all the appearance of ordinary 
commercial gum arabic; some of the pieces are colourless. In appearance, taste, 
solubility and reactions with reagents, it differs in no respect from gum arabic. It is, 
however, very acid in aqueous solution, and is perhaps deficient in adhesiveness and 
viscosity to the best gum arabic. It is identical with the gums obtained from several 
other species of Acacia growing in the dry western portion of New South Wales, which 
have great commercial possibilities, providing they are obtained in sufficient quantities. 
Mr. R. J. Dalton, then of Wanaaring, sent me, some years ago, specimens of 
Acacia Oswaldi twigs, with the following note : 
Nidgya, Nelia, or Blacks' Medicine Tree. This is held in great superstition by the' blacks, which 
I think is on account of a peculiar habit it has, and which I have ouly observed twice in twenty-three 
years, which occurred in the very dry years of 1889 and 1902. A kind of sap oozes out of the bark and 
leaves in such quantities as to give the ground underneath an appearance of being covered with water, 
and the bush a shining appearance in the sun. It seems to me to be a close relation of Gydgee, as the leaves 
and bark are very similar in appearance. 
The " Gydgee " is, of course, A. Cambagei, r,nd I cannot quite understand the 
passage as to the exudation, but I give it as I received it. 
Bark. Over thirty years ago I examined the bark of an oldish tree from 
Ivanhoe, via Hay, N.S.W., with the following result : Tanmc acid, 9-72 per cent. ; 
extract, 20-7 per cent. This much resembled the sample of A. hoinalophylla bark. It, 
of course, has no future as a tan-bark. 
% 
Timber. This is too small to be used for other than small articles. Speaking 
of the Hay district, the late Mr. K. H. Bennett wrote to me on 6th September, 1886, 
" A small bushy tree from 6 to 8 feet high ; timber exceedingly hard and tough, possessing 
very disagreeable smell when fresh or ' green,' used by natives in manufacture of short 
weapons such as clubs." 
It is commonly used for stock-whip handles. The heart-wood is dark, hard, 
heavy, close-grained, and durable; the timber is not used, but would be useful for 
cabinet-work, turnery, &c. 
Mr. K. H. Bennett told me that the suckers are very tough, and that Ivanhoe, 
via Hay, aborigines used to use them for the handles of their stone tomahawks. 
It was sent to me from the Balranald district as one of the six best fuel woods. 
Size. Usually a small umbrageous bush of '6 to 12 feet, hardly a tree. The 
trunk is usually only up to 6 inches in diameter. At the same time, in some districts it 
attains a larger size.' About Thackaringa it may attain 20 feet, with a stem diameter 
of 9 inches. Mr. Surveyor A. W. Mullen gave me 15 feet for it in the Wanaaring district 
(see photo), and Mr. W. A. W. de Beuzeville quoted a similar height in the Warialda 
district. 
C 
