68 AUSTRALIAN GRASSES AND PASTURE PLANTS 



rather narrow leaves are from two to five inches long, and of 

 a thick substance, and are much relished by cattle and sheep, 

 which eat quantities of them in dry seasons. Even when 

 quite young it produces a profusion of small, bell-shaped, 

 pale yellow flowers, which are succeeded by nearly oval fruits, 

 containing numerous orange coloured seeds enveloped in a 

 sticky mass. The ripe seeds germinate readily under ordinary 

 conditions, and numbers of seedlings may frequently be seen 

 growing under the parent plant. Growing near the Butter 

 Bush may often be seen various shrubby species of the genus 

 Cassia, the foliage of which is more or less eaten by cattle 

 and sheep, the latter being particularly fond of the young 

 seed pods, which are produced in great profusion in some 

 seasons. 



Cobar Myrtle (Myoporum desert-i) sometimes called 

 "Sweet- Berried Myrtle," is a compact-growing shrub, attain- 

 ing a height of from three to four feet, and widely distributed 

 in the interior of all the Australian States. Both cattle and 

 sheep are fond of its leaves and eat them readily, even when 

 other herbage is plentiful. In some seasons this shrub pro- 

 duces quantities of small, ovoid, yellow (when ripe) fruits of 

 a peculiar but not unpleasant flavour, which are much eaten 

 and relished by the aborigines. The bark is palatable to 

 rabbits, which are responsible for the destruction of large 

 numbers of plants. On considerable areas nothing but their 

 dead, white stems, once surmounted by good stock feed, is 

 to be seen, but on the older ringbarked (by rabbits) areas grass 

 and other herbage is gradually taking possession. 



Hop Bush. Several native shrubs belonging to different 

 families of plants are called Hop Bush, but the most important 

 ones, from a stockowner's point of view, are species of Dodonaa 

 and Daviesia. The former occur in all the Australian States 

 from the coast to the far interior, and the latter are widely 



