302 



Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Langethal records instances of Lucerne having yielded on the same 

 field under favorable circumstances for fifteen years four or five cuts 

 annually. The chemical analysis of the fresh herb, collected very 

 early in spring, gave the following results : Starch 1-5, gum 2*1, 

 unfermentable sugar 3, albumen 2'3, insoluble proteins 2'3, ash 2*3 

 per cent. [F. v. Mueller and L. Rummel]. To show how enormously 

 plants are affected in their mineral constituents by difference of soil, 

 Lace has analyzed the ashes of Lucerne (a) from granitic soil, (6) 

 chalky soil with flints, (c) clayey with chalk, (d) very chalky, and 

 found 



Medicago scutellata, J. Bauhin.* 



Countries at and near the Mediterranean Sea, where this annual 

 herb, as well as the allied M. orbicularis (Allioni), is regarded as a 

 valuable fodder-plant [Camel], without the disadvantage of their 

 fruits adhering to fleeces like those of prickly-fruited congeners. 

 For this particular reason the author introduced these two plants 

 into Australia, where in the dry hot inland-regions they have sur- 

 passed most other fodder-herbs in value and resistance to drought, 

 and wherever these get naturalised, they become a great boon to 

 pasture-lands : in the moist season they afford herbage ; in the dry 

 season sheep and other pasture-animals will resort to the copiously 

 shed fruits scattered on the ground. A plant of M. scutellata culti- 

 vated at Port Phillip bore 370 fruits, of which 312 ripened with from 

 4. to 5 seeds in each, therefore about 1,400 seeds fit to germinate. 

 Mrs. Biddulph, of Mount Playfair, in Central Queensland, counted 

 390 pods on a plant of M. orbicularis. They ought to be strewn 

 along railway-enclosures to secure a plentiful supply of acclimatised 

 seeds. Both will also bear some frost, and are rurally known as kinds 

 of " Snail-Clovers/' What in California was so highly spoken of 

 under the name of M. turbinata proved here to be M. scutellata. 



Melaleuca ericifolia, Smith.* 



South-Eastern Australia. A tall shrub or bushy tree. It spreads 

 to a length of 3 feet, sometimes rising to 40 feet. It is of importance 

 for consolidating muddy shores ; it will live in salty ground and water, 

 almost like mangroves. I found it growing vigorously, where the 



