78 Forage Plants of Australia. 



OEDEE, CHENOPODIACE^. 



KOCHIA CILIATA, F. T. M. 



" Hairy-fruited Saltbush." 

 Flora Austr., Vol. V t p. 188. 



A DWAEF undershrub growing about 18 inches high. The ascending branches 

 are softly woolly-villous. The leaves are alternate, linear or lanceolate and 

 about i of an inch long. The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils, but 

 crowded into a terminal leafy raceme, as shown in the engraving. At figure 

 1 is illustrated an enlarged drawing of the fruiting perianth which is very 

 flat, and clothed with long soft hairs, and about of an inch in diameter, 

 including the annual wing, which is thick and hard, quite entire, and bordered 

 by long soft hairs. 



This plant does not seem to have a wide geographical range, being found 

 only, as far as I have been able to ascertain, in the arid interior of New 

 South "Wales and South Australia. In some situations between the Lachlan 

 and Darling Bivers, in New South Wales, it was fairly plentiful a few years ago, 

 but since the rabbits became so numerous it is gradually getting more scarce, 

 as are also many of its congeners, on our central plains. Nothing, so far, has 

 been done, either in the way of the conservation or cultivation of these valuable 

 salinous plants. This, however, will have to be systematically undertaken 

 if our grazing lands are to carry a number of healthy stock. The plant under 

 notice will grow during the most adverse season of drought and heat, and it 

 is much relished by all herbivora, sheep often cropping it so close to the 

 ground that it has little chance to mature seed and reproduce itself by 

 natural means. When left unmolested for a time, however, it produces seed 

 in abundance, and when ripe, they germinate readily under ordinary con- 

 ditions. The seeds should be sown after rainfall in the early autumn months. 



