Acacia of Tasmania. 
17 
the usual and best-known appearance of the Acacia dealbata. In 
the settled parts of the colony it forms a small tree fifteen to 
twenty feet high with a large bushy head. Wherever the land 
has been cleared it springs up by thousands, and where land 
once cultivated is abandoned it becomes in a very few years (five 
or six) so densely and exclusively covered by this plant as to ren¬ 
der the land perfectly valueless for pastoral purposes. As it 
throws up innumerable suckers from the roots when cut down, it 
has become in many places a serious pest to the farmer. The 
seeds must, from their hard outer coat, retain their vegetative 
power for many years, as, wherever the Eucalypti are destroyed, 
the Silver Wattle springs into existence, although not previously 
apparent in the neighbourhood. 
The bark has been largely exported to Britain for tanning pur¬ 
poses under the name of “ Mimosa bark.” The quantity shipped 
from the port of Launceston alone from 1831 to 1845 amounted 
to 15,516 tons, (upwards of 2500 tons in one year) at an esti¬ 
mated value by the Customs’ books of £62,833 sterling; and, 
when it is borne in mind that to obtain the bark the tree is 
destroyed its abundance may be imagined. Nevertheless, if any 
demand now existed for it in England thousands of tons might be 
shipped. Although two kinds of Wattle bark are recognised in 
England, I believe both to be the produce of this tree; as the 
Black Wattle (A. molissima) is too scarce to yield any quantity 
for exportation, and the bark of the A. dealbata varies in colour 
from a silvery white in the dense forests to a jet black in the more 
open country. 
A kind of gum very similar in its properties to Gum Arabic is 
yielded by the two last-named species of Acacia; but it has not 
hitherto been made an article of export from this colony, although 
our neighbours of South Australia are exporting a similar produc¬ 
tion to England in large quantities. 
The A. dealbata flowers in August and September, and grows 
in almost any soil. 
von. III. no. i. 
c 
