56 Forage Plants of Australia. 



OBDEE, CHENOPODIACE.E. 



ATEIPLEX STIPITATA, BENTH. 



" Kidney-fruited Salt-bush." 



Flora Austr., Vcl. V,p. 168. 



Atf erect, bushy, rather slender shrub ; scaly white or somewhat brown all 

 over. The leaves are variable, but mostly narrow, oblong, very obtuse, con- 

 tracted into a short stalk, rather thick, and about three-quarters of an inch 

 long. Flowers dioecious that is, the male and female flowers are borne on 

 separate plants. At Figure I is illustrated the fruiting perianth, which is 

 arranged on a slender stalk of about one-third of an inch long. The 

 valves are flat, kidney-shaped, entire, and rarely half an inch broad. This 

 plant is found in the arid interior of New South Wales, Victoria, and South 

 Australia ; but, as far as I know, it is not very plentiful anywhere, and it is 

 yearly becoming more scarce on our arid central plains. This is to be 

 regretted, for it is one of the famous salinous plants which, along with its 

 congeners, has earned for our central plains the name of being the richest 

 feeding grounds for stock in the world. If this title is to be preserved, 

 however, it will be necessary to enter upon a system of conservation or 

 cultivation of these valuable plants. The shrub under notice will withstand 

 a phenomenal amount of dry weather, and by systematic conservation its 

 valuable herbage would be available during the most protracted droughts. 

 It is an excellent forage plant, of which herbivora, of all descriptions are 

 remarkably fond, and for this reason we may account for its not being 

 plentiful. When left unmolested for a time, it produces a fair amount of 

 seed, which, when ripe, germinates readily under ordinary conditions. There 

 are about thirty species of the genus Atriplcx indigenous in Australia, and 

 they are found from the littoral sands to the arid interior. Most of them are 

 excellent forage plants, and are well worthy of extensive conservation, and 

 even cultivation, on the arid plains of this continent. Many of them make 

 excellent table vegetables when properly cooked, and might very well be 

 used for such a purpose in places where the less hardy kinds of esculents- 

 would not thrive, especially during the extreme heat of summer. 



