Acacia decurrens, Willd. (A. mollissima, Willd. A. dealbata, Link.)

The Black Wattle or Silver Wattle. From the eastern part of S. Australia, through Victoria and N. S. Wales, to the southern part of Queensland, in open plains a small or middle sized tree, in deep forest recesses a lofty tree, of singularly rapid growth. Its wood can be used for staves and many other purposes, but its chief use would be to afford the first shelter, in treeless localities, for raising forests. Its bark, rich in tannin, and its gum, not dissimilar to Gum Arabic, render this tree also important. Other quick growing trees, useful in various ways, growing in any soil and enduring drought, can be used simultaneously, by mere dissemination, in ploughed ground, for dense temporary belts of shelter, or for quick yielding fuel plantations, such as Acacia pycnantha, A. lophantha, Casuarina quadri-valvis, Casuarina suberosa, Eucalyptus melliodora. Eucalyptus viminalis and many other Eucalypts, all easily growing from seed.