75 
Botanical Name. — Acacia, already explained (see Part XV, p. 104) ; 
homalophylla from two Greek words, omales (omalos ), even, level, referring to the 
smoothness, and perhaps also to the general uniformity of the phyllodes in this 
species; phnllon (phyllon ), a leaf (phyllode). 
Vernacular Names. —This is the common “ Yarran.” I do not know the 
origin of the name, which is well established and distinctive. Some trees have a 
curly inlocked grain in their wood, and hence are known as “ Curly Yarran.” 
Concerning these Mr. Forester Kidston, of the Lachlan district, wrote twelve 
vears ago :—■ 
I never could discover any external difference between “ Curly Yarran ” and “ Yarran,” except 
a wave in the bark showing the curls in the wood. I only know one patch of “ Curly Yarran ” in my 
beat. There are, however, several kinds of Yarran. 1st, Yarran ; 2nd, Mowar, and another out near 
Mossgiel, which sheep eat. The two former are no good to sheep. This season there are neither flowers 
nor fruits on most of the shrubs. 
I could not get specimens although I asked for them. Acacia Osicaldi is 
often called “ Yarran,” with some qualifying adjective. It will be dealt with in 
due course. 
What is “Namian?” 
Narran is an edible scrub somewhat resembling Brigalow, but is more desirable as fodder. It 
grows mostly in the interior and far west of New South Wales, and in one small patch in the north of 
Queensland. It had been known for some time that Narran grew somewhere up north, as blacks had 
been found with spears made of it, but it had not been seen by the whites. In 1881, when taking cattle 
out to stock some new country in the Northern Territory, I came across a large belt of it on the very 
head of a branch of the Nicholson River, almost on the dividing watershed. From the appearance of the 
scrub it was a popular resort of the natives for the purpose of making their weapons, the whole belt having 
been picked over, and the ground was strewn with shavings and chips. Narran is not found in 
Western Australia. 
The above paragraph occurs in the Sydney Mail for 1890. I have vainly 
tried to trace the name. 
Then the well-known explorer, Mr. Ernest Favenc, wrote an article in the 
Sydney Morning Herald of the 25th August, 1906, in which the following passage 
occurs:— 
The next scrub we find mentioned as a hindrance to travel is between the Lachlan and 
Murrumbidgee, where the “ thick Eucalyptus scrub ” turned Oxley back in disappointment and disgust. 
Oxley afterwards met with clumps of Myall scrub, when north of the Macquarie, of which he at first 
speaks rather disparagingly, although now considered one of our most useful trees, as well as one of 
graceful and ornamental appearance. Other trees of the same species, the Narran, Ac., seldom grow so 
dense or close as to be impenetrable to a rider, although requiring great care to steer a safe course through, 
and being eminently adapted to fostering the growth of wild cattle, and the development of that human 
centaur, the Australian scrub-rider. 
Seeing tbe old name Narran once more, I wrote to Mr. Favenc and be kindly 
replied:— 
lie Nsirran. It may bo only a locally-used name, but when T was droving about twenty-five years 
ago it was commonly used on the Bogan, and right across to the Warrego. I had been all my life in 
Queensland before then, and took it for a kind of Brigalow until corrected. 
