TasNat_1925_No1_Vol2_pp14-16_Breaden_Wattles

7/28/2019 TasNat_1925_No1_Vol2_pp14-16_Breaden_Wattles

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THE TASMANIAN NATURALISTand all three cuddled up closely together. Overhead a long, dried frondof the fet'n dropped, and little shaftsof sunlight filtered through the foliage above, touching the soft, downyteuthers of the babies and warmingthem. SittIng thus, they blended perfactly into the coloring around them,and only when they heanl the wel('ume sound of H parent returning withfood. and little heads and yellow beaksmoved. could I see what they were.\Vhen returning from a walk on theLietinnu 1';)1\Willows, whose young, delicate tintedleaves glisten in the sunlight afterrllin. and beautiful yellOW, golden yellow, buttercups stand upright abovetheir dark green foliage, and tiny wildviolets grow thickly upon the bank,keeping c1O!'1e to their mother earth. Inthis Quiet glade at the edge of thedear. funning watel'S of the Little Forrester, overhead. in the tall trees wildpigeons (bronzewlng). pa,rrots, andother birds fly undisturbed, arid giveQuite El romantic finish to the charm ofthe bush. I1a M. Harri.

Some Notes on the " Watile " or " Acacia"The word "wattle" iA one which wC'in Australia have peculiarly adopted Cl"our own. I t dates from Anglo-Saxontimes and signifies twigs or saplings orflexible rods plaited or interwoven together. The ,,",ork has come down tomodern days, and when early Rettlerflcame to Australia they found i t COIlyenient to construct the framework ofthe wans of their dwe11inu:s and other

buildin,z:s of twigs and split sanlings: theoperation was called "wattling" and thematerial used "wattle." Near Sydne;vCoye there grew in abundance. o y e r h a n ~ -the water courses, a small tree withsmall thin flexible stems, which waFl frequently nsed for the pnrpose, nnd hr-ncE?

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was ealled "wattle" or "black wattle."Subseqnently other phmts which wcnow call acacias were used for the purpose. aud these are recognised i'lS "wattles" in most parts of this continent or'Australia whether th(!ir stems and twigsare used for wattling or not. The term"wattle" is, however, by no means universally applied to plants of the genusnearin, partirnlarly in the far westernnartfl of the State of New South 'Vales.Myal!. Boree, Mulga, Brigalow, Cooba.nead Finish. Gidp:e-e, Hickory, ~ 1 i l i g e e ,PmbreIIa-bush. vVait-a-whiIe, and Yarranall belong to the great wattle family.The origin of th e name acacia is notabsolutely free from doubt, but the most

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THE TASMANIAN NATURALISTreasonable derivation indicates that itcomes from the Greek, Akazo. I sharpen,in allusion to the sharp spines of many ofthe AfrIcan and Asiatic species which are,however, not characteristic of most ofthe Australian ones.

Acacias are foundMainly in the -v.-armer Regionsof the earth, particularly Australia andAfrica; they aggregate nearly 500 speciesfor the whole world, of which considerably over 300 afe found in Australia alone.I t will therefore he seen that acacia, oras we call it "wattle" is mainly A u s ~tl'alian. The number of species can onlybe stated approximately, as botanists COlltinue to discover additional ones.

Blossoms or Flowers.The flowers of wattles fall into twogroups, those which have their flowers insmall round heads or fluffy balls, andthose in which the shape of the flowersmay be described as short blunt rods orspikes; if you look at the blossom witha pocket lens or magnifying glass, youwill observe that i t consists of a verylarge number of tiny flowers, forming infact, a colony of very small :fiowerettes,whose structure, though minute, is as perfect as that of any very large flowergrowing in our gardens. The minuteflowers will be found to contain perfectsepals, petals, and a large number ofstamens together with a pastil, the tinysepals and petals differ amongst themselvesin shape, texture, markings, in the p r ~ -sence or absence of hairs, and as thesecharacters often determine the species, itmay be necessary fo r a botanist to examine minutely a plant submitted for hisopinion. The color of the flowers variesfrom pure white to deep yellow, differentspecies showing flowers of varying shadesof cream color or pale yellow. They dono t show to advantage as cut flowers,their exquisite flnffiness departing verysoon after being removed from the plant.'NIost people are aware that the fruitof the wattle is a pod of legume, whichalthongh varying a good deal in share indifferent species, bears a strong familylikeness to the homely pea or bean. ittherefore belongs to the natural orderleguminosoe. In some seasons the conditions for forming pods are unfavorableover very large areas, and we may

Look for Them in Vain,but those of th e ornamental wattles arewen worthy of collection, as .these plantsare best propagated from seed. I t maybe as well to mention here that theouter coat of the wattle seed is very toughand impervious to moisture, so that itdoes not germinate very readily; there-(15)

fore before sowing wattle seed it needsto be soaked in hot, nearly boiling water,or partly baked, an operation often performed by bush fires, the seed will be indry grass land for many years, and assoon as a fire passes Over the grass acrop of young wattles is the result.Most of the wattles have no leaves,but only leaf .talks, whIch are flattened out, and have the appearance .ofleave8; they are called "Phyllodla,"which is a word made up from twoGl'ee,k ones, and means "like a leaf."The feathery foIl ago of t.he black andsilver and Cootamundra wattles, whichare finely divided SD as to be almostfern1ike, consists of true leawes. Manyof these Phyllodia ore almost endlpss ind ivel'sity of appearance. The fea.theryleaf wattles have a curious hab-it offoldtng theIr leaves at night, and goingto sleep.

Wattles vary very much in size whenfull grown. Some tIny species onlygrow up to about six inches in height,and may be crushed by walking overit , but mOflt of them are shrubs ortrees of moderate size, while at leasttwo species reach the height of verylarge trees, bDth of them being foundto measure up to ne,arly fDur feet indiameter, a.nd some 100 and 150 feet inheight. I have seen silver wattles ashigh as the gum trees, and ally thickness up to tw o feet or over; they growvery tall and straight in forests nearrl vers and in gullies.The wattle has been set apart as

Australia's National Emblem.and this is very appropriate, whenyou consider that i t is easentilflly aflower of winter or early spring, andit s cultivation easy. I t br:ghtens upour ~ a r d e n s and rowsides and mountainside and forests at a season whenthere are few other flowers, ann. noflowers more attractive than yellowones. When these facts are realised weAhall see more wattles adorning thehomes of this bright, sunny la"'d thanwe do at present, for they are themselves 9.n emblem of sunshine. So thea.ppropriateness of the flower being Australia's national emblem is fully demonstrated.

We will consider some varieties of thewattle. First we will take the blackwattle (Acacia Decurrens). I t is theone used for bark stripping, the barkbeing used for tanning purposes,

The w{){l-d. after stripping, makes verygood firClwood; tHe tree also makes verygood shelter trees on farms If left togrow.


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THE TASMANIAN NATURALISTThe silver wattle (Acacia Dealbata) . This tree, as 1 have said before, growsto a great height; it is also stripped forbark for tanning purposes, and is usedfor the manufacture of wood-wOool. ] 'O l 'wood-wool i t is necessary to get treesof this wattle that are grown in gullies,

i.e., quick grown timber, and free fromknots. The wood wool is used for packing al l sorts of fruit. I t could be usedfor work where fibre is used. A baleof wood wool will pack about 500 c a s e ~of apples; a ton of wattle wood of 80cubic feet measurement yields betweenfive and six cwt. of wood wool. Thewood, when dry. after being stripped,is good firewood. Wattle is also usedfor making staves fo r casks, and in thewhaling days a great deal of i t wasused; the casks for holding the whaleoil were made from the wattle, cartwheel spokes and a number of otherboth useful ~ n d very beautiful things.

Blackwood (Acacia Melanoxylon).This variety of the wa.ttle is of themost valUe ble of the Australian timbers. I t is a timber of the highestclass, having a. very orna.mental character, as well as great strength; i t is ahard, close-grained wood, and is verymuch valued and used in making furniture, billiard tables, gun stocks, walkin g sticks, railway and other carriages,.

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and al l sorts of cabinet work. It isalso used in boat building ( ~ t 2 r n andstem posts, ribs, rudder) , naves 0'wheds, par ts of organs, pianofot'tes(wound boards and actions), and verymany other purposes too numerous toindividualise. I t is a most useful timber for ('oachbulJ,ders in the bent timuerhranch; i t bends we11, and with propertreatment from the felling and sawingof the timber it SUbstitutes perfectly fOl 'the bent timber in. say, an Austrianchair, and would IO(Jk better, and feeljust as light, It valuable for panelliug, and will be seen in many ( ) f f i c e ~ inthe dtle!"l. It very like AmerJe:ltlwalnut.The blackwood known in Au!'traliathe Mudgerabah tree, and is very mUch

Used as a Shelter Tree.I t is about the only tree that p a s t o r a l ~i::-;ts in that country do not ringbark. Itgrows to a most beautiful tree, havinga t runk vllrying in thickness, and a verylarge spread of branches of dense folinge. It is an ideal shelter tree eitherin summer or winter . I t should beplanted ahm in gullies and foce};ts fot"t imber.

(To be continllC'd)J. C. Breaden.

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TasNat_1925_No1_Vol2_pp14-16_Breaden_Wattles