180 THE AUSTRALIAN’ NATURALIST. 
- OBSERVATIONS ON THE OCCURRENCE OF TWO» 
RARE ACACIAS AT LEURA, BLUE MOUNTAINS. 
(By A. A. Hamilton.) 
For Hast is East and West is West, 
And never the twain shall meet.’’ 
—Kipling. 
- The writer was reminded of the above couplet while. 
studying the habitat in Leura of two Acacias 4. Vorothea, 
Maiden, and A. obtusata, Sieb. var. Hamilton, Maiden. Al- 
lowing a margin of one or two hundred yards for overlapping, 
the boundaries of the two species in this area are:—Black- 
heath St. on the Kast, Leura Mali on the West, Bathurst 
Rd. on the North, and Megalong St. on the South. The two. 
species face each other, Hast (A. obtusata, var) and West. 
(4. Dorothea), about half way between Blackheath St. and 
Leura Mall, an alnzost straight line from the Bathurst Rd. 
South to Megalong St. dividing them, neither crossing into. 
its neighbour’s territory. On either side of the residence- 
known as ‘‘Gibba Gunyah,”’ on the Bathurst Rd., ara vacant 
allotments, which are both thickly grown with one of these 
“Wattles,’’ just now (Sept.) in bloom. A. obtusata, var. 
has usurped the eastern allotment, no plant of A. Dorothea: 
being present, while the western vacancy is occupied by 
A. Dorothea, its neighbour A. obtusata, var. being rigorous- 
ly excluded. 
On the western slope of Leura Mall, in the hollow south 
of the Leura Railway Station, the prevailing ‘Wattle’ is. 
A, «ubida, Cunn. (with its typical discoloured phyllodes and 
bipinnate leaves on the same branch), which Mr. Maiden 
gives as an affinity of A. Dorothea. 
_ The examples of A. Dorothea collected at Leura give the- 
impression that the inflorescence is in a state of transition, 
some of ths specimens having the flowers in almost globular- 
heads while in others the flower heads are gradually elon- 
gated into a short spike. 
Acacia Dorothea (Maiden) was described and figured in the 
the Proc. Linn. Sey., N.S. Wales, Vol. 26, 12, Plate I. 
Later in the same publication, V. 34, 358, principally on the- 
evidence of specimens in bud from Leura, it was removed 
from the section Uninerves, and placed in the section Juli- 
florae. Several plants of A. Dorothea are growing in the- 
grounds of St. Alban’s Church of England. These I com- 
mended to the care of the pastor, Rev. Walter Ellis, who dis- 
played considerable interest in them when informed of their- 
rarity and the prospect of their early extinction in this neigh~ 
bourhood. In order to minimise this calamity I have growm 
