72 Forage Plants of Australia. 



ORDER CHENOPODIACE.E. 



KOCHIA ERIANTHA, F. T. M. 



"Woolly-fruited Saltbush." 



Flora Austr., Vol. V, p. 186. 



A SHRUB, growing from 1 foot to 3 feet in height, with branches densely 

 toinentose. Its leaves are sessile, linear, or lanceolate, obtuse, or acute, 

 thick and soft, densely clothed with silky brown hairs, and about ^ an inch 

 in length. The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils, but are crowded along the 

 branches and enveloped in long woolly hairs. At Figure I is illustrated the 

 fruiting perianth, with the horizontal wing connected in a ring about |- an 

 inch in diameter, and densely woolly all over. This plant is peculiar to the 

 arid central plains of Australia, and in some situations it is moderately 

 plentiful. The free seeding qualities of the plant have rendered it practically 

 proof against extermination, its seeds germinating and growing even under 

 adverse conditions. The drought-enduring qualities of the plant are some- 

 what remarkable. The hot winds of the interior, and the fierce heat of the 

 summer's sun, seem to have little effect in checking its growth ; while the 

 other extreme of cold, experienced on the plains during the winter months, 

 it bears with impunity. This, no doubt, may be accounted for by its natural 

 woolly covering, which must be a great protection to the plant against these 

 extremes. In situations where overstocking has rendered it somewhat scarce, 

 it would well repay conservation, for it would produce a rich, succulent 

 forage during the most adverse season of drought and great heat, and a 

 forage, too, of which sheep and other herbivora are particularly fond. It is 

 one of the famous salinous plants which will have to receive more attention 

 at the hands of pastoralists than has hitherto been the case, as it is with 

 many other species fast disappearing through overstocking, and a proper 

 system of conservation, which has so often been advised, of these most 

 valuable plants, is the only way of restoring our central pastures to anything 

 like their normal state. The seeds should be sown after rainfall, either in 

 the autumn or spring months. 



