56 
5. Variety dealbata, E.v.M., “ The Silver Wattle.” 
Botanical description. —Var. dealbata * E.v.M. 
A handsome tree, closely resembling the var. mollis of A. decurrens, and to be added, perhaps, 
to the varieties of that species as proposed by F. Mueller, but the branches and foliage are 
very glaucous or hoary, with a minute pubescence not assuming a golden tinge on the young 
shoots. 
Pinna. —Usually 10 to 20 pairs. 
Pinnules (leaflets). —30 to 40 pairs ; linear, crowded, 2 to 3 lines long ; glands, usually numerous. 
Floioer-heads. —Small, in axillary racemes paniculate at the ends of branches, as in A. decurrens. 
Pod. —Broader, not contracted between the seeds, and more glaucous. 
Var. dealbata may be looked upon as an extreme form of mollis. The 
indumentum is usually greater (more compact, with shorter hairs) than in A. mollis, 
hut of the same character. It should also he borne in mind that the young tips are 
sometimes distinctly yellowish. 
The fruits also are often distinctly constricted between the seeds, but usually 
only when quite ripe. 
Where var. dealbata and var. mollis occur in the same district, the former 
prefers the river hanks and valleys and the latter the mountain slopes. 
Botanical Name. — Dealbata, Latin, whited, hence white-washed, in allusion 
to the whiteness of the stem (and foliage). 
Synonyms. — Acacia dealbata, Link.; A. irrorata, Sieb. in Spreng. 
Syst. iii, 141. 
Vernacular Name. —The wattle which most commonly goes under the 
name “ Silver Wattle.” There are, of course, several other wattles known as 
“ Silver Wattle” in restricted areas. 
Aboriginal Names. —Formerly called “ Ur-root ” by the Yarra (Victoria) 
aborigines. Native name on the Castlereagh Liver, N.S.W., “ Eumung,” according 
to the late Lev. Dr. Woolls, but I would point out that at least three other western 
New South Wales wattles share that name. 
Flowers. —At one time a well-known London firm of perfumers stated that 
they prepare their “Extract of Australian Wattle” from the flowers of this wattle, 
which is grown in enormous quantities on the Liviera in southern Europe for 
decorative purposes. 
* I attribute this variety to Mueller on Bentham’s evidence (B.F1. ii, 415), “ A. dealbata .... to be added, 
perhaps, to the varieties of that species as proposed by F. Mueller. . . . This, the “ Silver Wattle” of the colonists, 
is unhesitatingly united with A. decurrens by F. Mueller.” At the same time I do not know where he established the 
var. dealbata, and of late years, e.g., in his “ Census,” and also his “ Key to the System of Victorian Plants,” he looked 
upon A. dealbata as a species. 
