Forage Plants of Australia. 69 



OBDER CHENOPODIACE^]. 



KOCHIA LANOSA, LINDL. 

 " Cottony Saltbush." 



Flora Austr., Vol. F, p. 184. 



AN erect or spreading under shrub growing from 1 foot to 2 feet high. The 

 whole plant is densely covered with a soft silky tomentum. Its leaves are 

 sessile, linear, mostly acute, thick and soft, and nearly \ an inch in length. 

 The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils. At figure 1 is illustrated the 

 fruiting perianth, which is more or less woolly all over. The five horizontal 

 wings are more or less united in a ring, scarcely a ^ an inch in diameter. There 

 are five linear, acute, erect appendages alternating with, and arranged above, 

 the horizontal wings as shown in the engraving. This plant is found princi- 

 pally in the interior of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and 

 West Australia, and in some situations it is still moderately plentiful, but in 

 others it is becoming scarce through overstocking. Stock of all descriptions 

 are fond of this plant, sheep particularly so, and they often eat it down so 

 close to the ground that it has little chance to recuperate. When left un- 

 molested for a time, however, it quickly recovers and produces seed in fair 

 quantities, which when ripe, germinate readily under ordinary conditions. 

 It is one of the famous salinous plants that are becoming more scarce on our 

 central plains every year, and nothing, so far, has been done either in the 

 way of conservation or cultivation. This, however, will have to be under- 

 taken before very long if our pastures are to maintain the high reputation 

 they have acquired of being such rich feeding grounds for stock. The 

 drought-enduring qualities of the plant are remarkable, -for neither the hot 

 winds that blow in the interior, nor the fierce heat of the summer sun, seems 

 to have any effect upon its growth, whilst the other extreme of cold 

 experienced on the plains during the winter months it bears with impunity. 

 But this in a great measure may be accounted for by its natural woolly 

 covering, which must be a great protection against these extremes of weather 

 experienced during the course of a year. It must, therefore, be acknow- 

 ledged that such a valuable plant as this is worthy of extensive conservation, 

 and even cultivation. If such a simple plan as fencing off, say 500 or 1,000 

 acres, in oblong strips, were undertaken, and the enclosed land then ploughed 

 up, sown down with seeds of salinous plants, and harrowed lightly in, in a 

 few months the plants would provide enough feed for thousands of cattle 

 and sheep during the most protracted drought. Eor, generally speaking, the 

 drier the weather the more luxuriantly these salinous plants will grow, pro- 

 vided they are not trampled underfoot by grazing animals. Many of the 

 more dwarf salinous plants are not always destroyed through being closely 

 eaten down ; it is the constant tramping of the animals' hoofs that causes such 

 destruction among them. There are about fifteen species and several varieties 

 of the genus Ivochia indigenous in Australia, and nearly all of them are 

 valuable forage plants. They are nearly all peculiar to the central portion 

 of this continent, and resist drought to a marked degree, being on this account 

 most valuable plants to the pastoralist, as they provide some feed for stock 

 when the surrounding vegetation is somewhat "dried up for want of rain. 



The best time of the year to sow the seed of this plant, is, either in the 

 early autumn or spring months, after rainfall if possible, but not until the 

 soil becomes workable. 



