62 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
about 50 active larvae. Now if we find a dozen hungry mos- 
quitoes in the room we consider them a pest, yet every sub- 
urban resident with a garden and fernery is breeding his own 
mosquitoes, and a few over for his next door neighbour. 
Mosquitoes do not travel very far, nor do they breed to any 
great extent in large holes or deep water, because in such 
places they have many enemies in other insects, tadpoles and 
small fish. It is in the old tins, buckets and tubs around the 
house that our house-hunting mosquitoes are usually born. 
At this time of the year, if every householder was to go care- 
fully over his ground and house, he would be almost certain 
to find mosquito larvae somewhere close at hand in most un- 
suspected places, and by disturbing these, would soon reduce 
the number in his dwelling. If you will place a dish of water 
anywhere in the garden under the trees, and examine it ‘n 
the morning, you will at this time of the year find one or 
more boats of mosquito eggs floating on. the surface.’’ 
NOTES ON WATTLES. 
(By Edwin Cheel.) 
THE name Acacia appears to have been founded by Tourne- 
fort in 1837, and is probably derived from ac, a point, in 
Celtic, or from the Greek Akazo, to sharpen, in allusion to 
the spiny characters of the first species described which were 
obtained from Africa or Asia. The various species were for- 
merly classed under the name J/imosa, a genus established 
by Linnaeus, but are now separated from that genus by well 
defined characteristics. The main difference of the genus is 
in the indefinite number of stamens and free filaments. In 
the closely allied genera the stamens are definite; that is to 
say, they are either equal in number, or twice as many as 
the number of petals. The inflorescence of the genus Acacia 
are either arranged in little rounded heads or in cylindrical 
spikes, and when closely examined with a pocket-lens it will. 
be found that these heads or spikes are made up with tiny 
flowerets. These little flowerets each have four or five tiny 
sepals and petals, or rarely less than that number, which dur- 
ing the early stages of the flowerets afford protection to the 
delicate stamens and pistil. When the stamens are fully de- 
veloped they expand, and thus they resemble whitish or golden 
fluffy little balls when they are in heads, or when they are. 
arranged in spikes they somewhat resemble the amenta or 
catkins of the willows. 
There are upwards of 500 species of the genus Acacia known 
fo science, which are distributed chiefly in tropical or sub- 
