70 Forage Plants of Australia. 



ORDER CHENOPODIACE^E. 



KOCHIA BREVIFOLIA, E. BE. 

 " Short-leaved Saltbush." 



Flora Austr., Vol. V,p. 185. 



A MUCH branched, rather slender shrub, growing about 2-i- feet high. 

 The branches and foliage are often clothed with short woolly hairs, 

 though at times the older foliage is quite glabrous. The leaves are alternate, 

 sessile, linear, and scarcely of an inch long. The flowers are small and 

 solitary in the leaf axils. Figure I is an enlarged drawing of the fruiting 

 perianth, which is bordered by five horizontal membranous veined wings, 

 forming a circle, but not united. This plant is found principally on 

 the Darling and Macquarie Rivers, Camden Valley, and Liverpool Plains in 

 New South Wales, Darling Downs in Queensland, near the Murray River 

 in Victoria, Spencer's Gulf and other stations in South Australia, and near 

 the Murchison River in "West Australia, but it is not reported to be plentiful 

 anywhere. Like many of its congeners, the drought enduring qualities of 

 this plant are remarkable, and it affords forage in the driest of seasons of 

 which herbivora of all kinds are remarkably fond, sheep particularly so. 

 When not too closely fed down, this plant will produce a fair amount of 

 seed, which germinates readily under ordinary conditions. ]N"o great outlay, 

 therefore, will be required to enter upon a system of conservation or cultiva- 

 tion of it where overstocking has rendered it scarce. 



The seed should be sown during the early autumn months, and after rain- 

 fall if possible, or, failing this, after rain in September or October. 



