Acacia baileyana F. V. Muell.

A small evergreen tree of slender graceful habit, with often pendulous branches, devoid of down in all its parts; young shoots glaucous. Leaves bipinnate, 11⁄4 to 2 in. long, composed of four, six, or eight main divisions (pinnae), each 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, on which the leaflets are pinnately arranged in pairs; leaflets linear, abruptly and obliquely pointed, 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. long, 1⁄20 in. wide, sixteen to forty on each of the pinnae, where they are almost or quite contiguous. All the parts of the leaf are of a beautiful pale glaucous hue. Racemes produced from the leaf-axils of the past season’s shoots (which are often 1 to 2 ft long), each raceme 21⁄2 to 4 in. long and bearing twenty to thirty flower-heads. Flowers rich bright yellow, crowded in globose heads or balls about 1⁄4 in. wide, each ball on a stalk 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. long. Pods 2 to 3 in. long, 1⁄2 in. wide. Bot. Mag., t. 9309.

Native of New South Wales; introduced about 1888. This is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of all acacias, combining with its exceptional elegance a vivid bluish whiteness of foliage and young shoot, and a wonderful profusion and beauty of blossom. It blooms early in the year. It is more tender than A. dealbata and will survive the average bad winter only in the mildest counties. A beautiful, round-headed tree once grew at Lanarth, Cornwall, which in May 1930 had a spread of 20 ft. At the present time there are good specimens in Eire, where it grows well at Mount Usher, Co. Wicklow, on a garden wall, and at Glenveagh, Co. Donegal, in a sheltered border.