26 



Sarcostemma nustrale. — A very singular plant, named bv 

 liobt. Brown, the great botanist of Flinders' voyages, and 

 described by him as a trailing twiner, but as found here it is a 

 leafless mass of rigid stems three to four feet high, somewhat 

 glaucose, scarcely so thick as a penholder. The stems, if 

 broken, exude an acrid milky juice, but on the stony table- 

 lands of the north-western district sheep have lived on this 

 plant for months without water, and kept up their condition. 

 The aborigines are also said to use it to prevent ulcerous sores 

 from spreading. Like many more of the foregoing, injudicious 

 stocking causes its complete destruction. In fact, all over 

 Australia, wherever bushes of similar character to those 

 described in this paper predominate, the extreme unwisdom of 

 overstocking is most alarmingly evident, and each succeeding 

 drought makes matters worse. The necessity felt by the 

 sheep farmer to recoup heavy losses prevents his run being 

 so lightly stocked as to permit of the young plants becoming 

 established, with the result that each succeeding drought is 

 more severely felt. 



In concluding these remarks I hope some abler observer of 

 plant life in the interior may publish notes, not only on our 

 unsurpassed and exceedingly valuable grasses, which withstand 

 drought in so remarkable a manner, but also on those very 

 fattening herbs which cannot be surpassed in the whole world 

 for their property of forming fat very rapidly, and of such a 

 quality that stock travel enormous distances to market, 

 and waste so slightly as to be able to surpass stock fattened 

 locally. One such herb is that deliciously-scented clover, 

 Trigondla suavissima, or Meuindie Clover, which grows on soils 

 subjected to lengthened inundations, sucli as Menindie Lake, 

 and another is that useful vegetable Tetragonia expansa, or 

 IS'ative Spinach, very often boiled when garden-grown vegetables 

 are scarce, and very many others, some of which may become of 

 great use when cultivated beyond their natural limits. 



It is very much to be desired that some one may also point 

 out those plants, natives of the heated interior, which are likely 

 to grow in the settled districts during summer, as I think it 

 may be possible to sow with the seed-wheat annual grasses or 

 succulent herbs which would grow during the hot weather, and 

 after the grain is reaped. The imuiense advantage this would 

 aft'ord needs no enlarging upon ; it would double the stock-feeding 

 capacities of our farms, and I hope experiments in this direction 

 by the able Professor of Agriculture at Koseworthy may be 

 undertaken, as promising results of the greatest practical im- 

 portance to all districts of the colony. 



JBoerhaavia diffusa. — In Boerliaavia diffusa we have one such, 

 plant — a perennial of straggling habit, with juicy leaves, often 



