The Garden Magazine, March, 1923 
37 
THE ACACIA UNDER CALIFORNIA SKIES 
All the cool sunshine of early spring seems concentrated in the flowering crowns of these lovely Silver Wattles 
(Acacia dealbata) which brighten the months of February and March with their exuberant yellow bloom 
support rain-forests which are termed “brush.” The term 
“scrub” is occasionally applied but the tendencyis to relegate this 
term to the open, park-like forests of the dryer interior regions. 
In the “brush” broad-leaf evergreen trees, with umbrageous 
crowns and green leaves set at right angles on the branchlets and 
casting a heavy shade, predominate over the familiar Eucalypt. 
Lianes are common together with epiphytic plants and a dense, 
green undergrowth of shrubs. In other words the vegetation 
of the rain-forests is luxuriant but eastern Australia in general 
lacks the wealth of brilliant inflorescences characteristic of the 
sand-plains of western Australia. On the highest mountains, 
and in Tasmania in particular, grow many alpine plants. 
Curiously enough it is in western Tasmania that the rain-for¬ 
ests reach their maximum density. In these luxuriates the re¬ 
markable Horizontal ( Anodopetalum biglandulosum ) a tree with 
horizontally spreading branches densely matted one above 
another rendering the floor of the forest quite impassable. 
In eastern Australia the Eucalypts attain their maximum 
development both in height and taxonomic complexity and 
yet in size of flower and brilliancy of color they fall behind and 
can not compare with many of their western Australian breth¬ 
ren. Individual trees of Ironbark ( E. sideroxylon ) are com¬ 
monly seen with pink or crimson flowers but, though pretty, 
these are small. In the others the flowers are white or cream- 
colored and no east Australian Eucalypt even approximates in 
beauty to the Red-flowered E. ficifolia of the western state to 
mention no other. (I may say here that sepals and petals are 
absent in all Eucalypts and when the color of the flowers is 
mentioned it is that of the stamens that is really meant.) The 
tallest known Eucalypts grow in Gippsland, Victoria, and are 
referable to E. regnans. The height of these trees has been 
much exaggerated, as much as 525 feet having been stated. 
The tallest tree authentically measured was 303 feet which 
leaves a good margin in favor of the 340-foot Redwood ( Sequoia 
sempervirens) measured as it lay on the ground by Professor Sar¬ 
gent near Scotia on the Eel River, California, in September, 1896. 
Other giant Eucalypts are the Blackbutt (E. pilularis ) and 
the Tallow-wood (E. microcorys). Indeed, many species grow to 
an enormous size including E. globulus which is the Eucalypt 
best known to us of the North and in the minds of many does 
duty for the whole family. Of the 76 species enumerated in the 
Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture as being in cultivation in 
this country 66 are native of eastern Australia. The genus was 
founded on E. obliqua by L’ Heretier on material collected by 
David Nelson at Adventure Bay, Tasmania, in January, 1777, 
though members of the genus were earlier seen and collected by 
Banks and Solander at Botany Bay and elsewhere. It was 
Banks at Bustard Bay in May, 1771, that first applied to them 
the name of Gum-trees now universally adopted in Australia. 
The Eucalypts are Australia’s greatest gift to forestry. They 
are now planted in immense numbers in Africa, South America, to 
a less extent in California,* New Zealand, southern India and the 
regions bordering the Mediterranean. As the work of afforesta¬ 
tion proceeds Eucalypts will be more and more planted and where 
climate is suitable they are destined to be the favored ones 
among all other hard-wood trees. Their rapid growth and their 
wide range of useful timbers give them advantage over all other 
broad-leaf trees in the practice of commercial forestry. 
Some Typical Flowering Shrubs and Trees 
T HE WARATAH (Telopea speciosissima) , the national flower 
of New South Wales, is a large bush or small tree with deeply 
toothed, coriaceous leaves, oblong with a narrowed base, and 
terminal subglobose heads from 3 to 4 inches through, of crimson 
flowers rather suggesting a large Chrysanthemum. Related to 
Telopea is the Wheel-tree of which three species ( Stenocarpus 
sinuatus, S. Cunninghamii and S’, sail gnus ) are in cultivation. 
These are large trees, native of the “ brush,’’with leaves clustered 
at the ends of the branches and flowers arranged in candelabrum¬ 
like umbels with each unopened flower radiating outward like the 
spokes of a wheel. The handsomest is S. sinuatus with bright 
orange-red tipped with yellow flowers. The inflorescence is 
clothed with attractive orange-scarlet, silky hairs and when all 
the flowers of an umbel are open it suggests a Taxsonia flower. 
Well-known to us of the North, being raised as an annual pot- 
plant bv nurserymen for table decoration on account of its ele¬ 
gant much-divided foliage, is the Silky Oak ( Grevillea robusta ). 
This is one of the handsomest of Australian flowering trees and 
has richly figured wood valuable for furniture and cabinet¬ 
making. The flowers are orange-yellow borne erect on one¬ 
sided racemes freely produced along the branchlets. As in other 
Proteaceae the long-persistent fruits are a drawback, being rather 
* “Picturesque Values of Eucalyptus” by Allison M. Woodman, The Garden 
Magazine for December, 1921. 
