58 Forage Plants of Australia. 



OEDEE CHENOPODIACE J3. 



ATEIPLEX CINEREA POIE. 

 " Grey Salt-bush." 



Flora Austr,, Vol. V,p. 171. 



A BRAycniNa shrub, which often attains a height of several feet, and is 

 covered all over with a white or grey scaly tomentum. Its leaves are 

 oblong, or lanceolate, and are from 1 inch to 2 inches in length. This 

 species is semi-dioecious ; but our illustration shows the male flowers only, 

 which are borne in dense globular clusters collected into a terminal spike. 

 At Figure I is illustrated a fruiting perianth, with a solid turbinate base and 

 broadly triangular valves. It is peculiar to the saline sands on the eastern, 

 southern, and western seaboards of the continent, which it helps to bind. 

 This fact might be noted by those' who are engaged in planting drift-sands 

 at Newcastle and Wollongong. It is a plant which is easily propagated both 

 by seed and cuttings. The latter should be made of the half- ripened wood, 

 and planted in the ordinary way. The seeds can be sown where the plants 

 are intended to grow, or in prepared beds, and when the seedlings are large 

 enough to handle they can be transplanted to their permanent quarters. It 

 is a capital forage plant for cattle, and they eat it with great avidity. Its 

 particular relish may be accounted for by the fact of its being one of our 

 famous salinous plants, which have made the pastures of Australia such rich 

 feeding grounds for all herbivora. "When timber-getters on the eastern sea- 

 board depended on bullocks for hauling logs out of the scrub, they would 

 turn the animals out for weeks together at slack times, or when they were 

 getting a number of logs ready for hauling. "When the bullocks were 

 wanted, the timber-getters invariably struck a line for the coast, where the 

 animals would be found rolling fat through feeding on this coastal vegetation. 

 On one occasion, when sent to report on the timber of a particular district 

 and collect the indigenous flora, I remember seeing the timber-getters going 

 for their bullocks. About a fortnight previously three escapees from JS"ew 

 Caledonia had landed at the place where the bullocks were depasturing. 

 They had killed and nearly eaten two out of the number, and, with their 

 skins, had made themselves a tent. The timber-getters, of course, were 

 much put out ; but they took a humane view of the matter. When I left 

 the escapees were giving their services, as a slight recompense for the loss 

 of the bullocks ; and they seemed quite satisfied with having been treated so 

 leniently. The seeds of this plant may be sown either in the spring or 

 autumn months ; but the cuttings are best put in during the autumn. 



