Forage Plants of Australia. 83 



OKDER CHEXOPODIACE^]. 



SCLEEOL^XA PAEADOXA, E. BE. 



<; Curious Saltbush." 



Flora Austr., Vol. V,p. 196. 



A MASY-BBAXCIIED undershrub growing about 15 inches high, the whole 

 plant being densely clothed with a loose cottony w r ool, which gives it a 

 singular appearance. The leaves are alternate, narrow, obtuse, soft, and 

 woolly, from to % an inch long. The flowers are arranged in dense 

 axillary clusters, the perianths small and deeply lobed. Fruiting perianths 

 10 to 20 together, as illustrated at figure 1. They are very hard at the 

 base, and joined together in a globular woolly mass of about half an 

 inch in diameter. This plant is found in the interior of K"ew South 

 Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, but it is not reported to be plentiful 

 anywhere. Its drought-enduring qualities are remarkable, and often when 

 the surrounding vegetation is dry -looking this silvery-looking plant is found 

 growing luxuriantly. Whilst in a young state it is an excellent forage 

 plant, sheep being particularly fond of it. This, no doubt, may be accounted 

 for by the slightly salinous taste that pervades the whole plant. "When the 

 plant becomes old it produces seeds very freely if not too closely fed down. 

 But the fruiting perianths not readily dehiscing keep the seed from coming 

 in contact with the soil, thus preventing germination taking place until the 

 partial decay of the perianths. The young plants being so readily eaten 

 down, and the slow way that they reproduce themselves in a natural way, are, 

 doubtless, the chief reasons for the plant being so scarce on our arid plains. 

 But it is well worthy of conservation and even cultivation along with other 

 salinous plants. 



