52 AUSTRALIAN GRASSES AND PASTURE PLANTS 



rich and inferior country, but on the former yields a much 

 larger amount of herbage. Its succulent, mucilaginous leaves 

 are much relished by sheep, and dairy cows fed on the plant 

 are said to yield plenty of milk. Horses, however, eat the 

 plant but sparingly. When not too closely fed over, this plant 

 produces an abundance of seed upon which certain kinds of 

 birds feed. Its seeds are sometimes gathered by the settlers 

 in the back country, who use them as a substitute for 

 commercial sago, hence one of its popular names, " wild 

 sago." There are six species and several varieties of the 

 genus Plantago indigenous to Australia, three of them 

 occurring in the coldest parts, with much the same properties 

 as the one described above. 



Parakeelya is the aboriginal name of a plant widely dis- 

 tributed in the drier and hotter parts of the continent, and 

 known to scientists as Calandrinia balonensis. This is an 

 erect growing plant of from six inches to one foot high, or 

 more, the slender branching stems of which are clothed with 

 thick, fleshy leaves one inch to two inches long. Its rather 

 large purple flowers are disposed on terminal stalks. When 

 figuring and describing, under instructions from the Govern- 

 ment of West Australia, the plants of economic value that com- 

 pose the pasture herbage of the western portion of the con- 

 tinent, my attention was drawn to this plant with very succul- 

 ent leaves as being one of the best to assuage the thirst of 

 stock that eat it. It is now well known that Parakeelya 

 affords both feed and moisture to herbivora in waterless 

 country, and there are authentic records of stock having 

 travelled nearly three hundred miles without a drink of water 

 over country where this plant was growing. Some allied 

 indigenous species have similar properties. The purslane or 

 munyeroo of the aborigines (Portulaca oleracea), is an annual 

 belonging to the same family as the parakeelya, with succulent 

 stems and leaves which are much relished by most pasture 



