BY AV. WOOLLS, PU. D., T.L.S. 815 



Atriplex semihaccata, (E/. Br.), and Koch id villosa, (Lindl.), are 

 tlie most esteemed amongst what are called Salt or Cotton Bushes. 

 Bliagodici nutans (B. Br.), M. linifolia (R. Br.), Clienopodium 

 auricomiDn, (Lindl.), C. album, (Linn.), and C. triangioJare (E-. 

 Br.) may be placed in the same category ; but it is to be feared, 

 that, unless more care is exercised in the feeding of sheep and 

 cattle in the interior, same of the Salt Bushes will become as 

 rare as certain indigenous grasses are now near the coast. It is 

 too much the custom to let the stock feed year after year 

 on certain runs, without dividing the same into paddocks 

 and removing the sheep or cattle from one to another ; and hence 

 the older Salt-bushes are eaten down to the very roots, whilst 

 the young plants are consumed almost as soon as they germinate. 



In addition to the Salsolacere, there are some good forage plants 

 of the Greraniacese, Umbellifera>, Amarantaccce, Eicoidcte, and 

 JS'yctaginea", which in the absence of grasses are highly useful in 

 the economy of nature. Some of these are popularly called 

 Crowfoots, Wild Carrots, and so on, but perhaps amongst them 

 all, none is more useful than Boerliaavia diffusa (Linn.), which, 

 having a long tap-root, can withstand a considerable amount of 

 drought, whilst it affords pasture early in the season ere the 

 grasses are fully developed. Of the Leguminosre of the interior, 

 some are decidedly injurious to sheep and cattle, especially when 

 in dry seasons they can find no other herbage to feed on. Such 

 are some species of Swainsona, Indigofera, and Lotus, to which 

 very bad eifects are attributed. The first of these, in the species 

 S. Greyana (Lindl.), and S. galegifolia (B. Br.), has been looked 

 upon with much suspicion, and there can be no doubt that, in 

 certain seasons (probably when sheep and cattle feed on such 

 species exclusively,) they produce strange effects on the brain, 

 causing animals to see objects larger than they really are, and 

 giving them a propensity to climb. From observations made 

 near Mudgee, it does not appear that S. galegifoliai^ deleterious 

 when eaten with other herbage, nor indeed have the poisonous 



