THE MULGA 



181 



available there are reckoned several species of those 

 kinds of andropogon, aristida, stipa, &c, which occur 

 also in arid parts of Africa and America: others, like 

 the kangaroo grass and the porcupine grass, are restricted 

 to Australia. The typical desert grass is the spinifex, 

 whose little balls of long, narrow, hairy leaves are 

 anchored in the sand by means of a network of long, 





i. 



^"^fr Y 



Fig. 63. A station in the Savana Country, N. Australia. 

 Note the grass trees. 



thin, wiry roots. This scrub may ultimately be reduced 

 to a thin carpet of flowering herbs, with little grass. 



The large alkali tracts of the central lowlands, as in 

 other arid countries, are covered with juicy and fleshy 

 salt bushes. In the north the swamps are beset by 

 relatives of the spinach, the rhagodia, and, miihlenbecJcia. 

 These salt steppes provide a good feeding for sheep and 

 cattle. 



