PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 595 
stances becomes more healthy, the fire acting as a disinfectant, 
and contagious diseases disappear. Grasses that will grow in 
low, damp situations are a valuable stand-by for the pastoralist 
during protracted droughts. 
SALSOLACEOUS OR CHENOPODIACEOUS PLANTS.—These most 
valuable plants are, from year to year, becoming more scarce on the 
western plains of this continent. Being so closely fed down 
gives them little chance to mature seed, which is their only 
natural means of reproduction. When left unmolested for a 
time, however, they will produce an abundance of seed, which 
germinates readily under ordinary conditions; many of them, 
also, are readily increased by cuttings, so that it would require 
no great outlay to enter upon a proper system of conservation, 
and even cultivation. Moreover, once the plants are established, 
they will continue to grow in the most adverse circumstances of 
drought and great heat; in fact, very few other kinds of plants, 
so useful for fodder purposes, could exist under such adverse 
circumstances as do most kinds of the saltbush family. There is 
abundant proof that when sheep are depastured in country where 
plenty of salinous plants are growing amongst the natural grasses, 
fluke and other allied ailments are entirely unknown. It has been 
said that, when horses which are subject to swamp cancer on the 
low coast lands are turned into pasture where salinous plants are 
plentiful, this disease entirely disappears. | While on the subject 
of Distoma-disease and other allied ailments, I may mention 
another genus of plants which should not be overlooked in any 
system of conservation. It is that of Zygophyllum, some species 
of which act as vermifuges. There are very few species arranged 
under the order Chenopodiacee, which are not available for fodder, 
though exception might be taken to the following species. During 
protracted droughts balls of cotton-like substance form on Kochia 
aphylla, Enchylena tomentosa, and a few other plants of the order. 
The fulvous tomentum on some species of Sclerolwna, and the 
woolly covering of the fruits of some species of Chenolea, have 
been known to kill sheep when they have partaken too freely of this 
indigestible stuff, along with parts of the plants. The dorsal spines 
on the fruit of all species of Anisacantha cause some trouble to the 
salivary glands of sheep and other small herbivora when they 
partake too freely of the plants when the fruits are near maturity. 
Anisacantha muricata, makes the troublesome “roley-poleys’ 
of our central plains. The following is a synopsis of those 
species which have come under my observation, and I can recom- 
mend as being worthy of conservation :—Rhagodia billardieri, 
R. gaudichaudiana, R. hastata, R. nutans, and R. paradolica, 
Chenopodium carinatum, C. auricomum, C. atriplicinum, and C. 
triangulare, Atriplex campanulata, A. cinerea, A. halimoides, A. 
holocarpa, A. muelleri, A. nummularia, A. rhagodioides, A. semt- 
baccata, A. leptocarpa, A. spongiosa, A. velutinella, A. vesicaria, 
9 
L2 
