616 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



will also strike readily from cuttings. The woody part of the plant amounts to 

 10 per cent, only ; the other 90 per cent, is food and moisture. The pasture 

 thus afiforded is particularly wh'lesome. Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, the 

 Grovernraent Botanist of "Victoria, sent seeds of this plant to Professor 

 IVIacOwan at the Care Town Botanic Gardens; and (mainly t' rough the 

 exertions of Mr. Edward Gr. Alston) the Atriplex nummular i a was tlius spread 

 to all |iarts of South Africa, where it now flourishes. 



(3) Atriplex Halimus, the " Vaal-Bosje,'"' or Cape salt-bush. This indi- 

 genous vari^-ty seems to lie in some respects inferior, as regards power of 

 propagation, to the imported Australian plant. But as a fodder plant it is 

 nearly of equal value. Analysis shows that it contains a larger proportion of 

 carbohydrates, which constitute the fat-forming material; while the A. 

 nummulana contains a good deal more albumenoid, i.e., nitrogenous or 

 strength-giving constituents. The A . halimus reaches the South of Europe 

 and is cultivated in the Kew Arboretum. It is not unfrequently employed as 

 a hedge plant in this country, in the Isle of Wight, and elsewhere near the 

 sea. It also a])pears that the French Government have contemplated intro- 

 ducing it in the Southern \ ortion of Algeria. 



(4) Atriplex halimoides. A pro-cumbent or diffuse undei-shrub, Queensland 

 to South Australia, and gregarious over the greater part < f the saline desert 

 interior of Australia. Mueller describes it as " one of the best dwarf species 

 for salt-bush pastures.'' Kaised readily from seed. Cultivated at Kew. 



(5) Atriplex lepioca'pa. A strong plant with a thick stock and herbaceous 

 pro-cumbent stems extending to 1 or 2 feet. East Australia. Mueller stages : 

 " Another of the perennial salt-bushes which render many dry and sterile 

 tracts valuable for sheep pastures. It will bear a great amount of drought." 



(6) Atriplex semibaccata. Stems herbaceous, pio-cumbent or prostrate, 

 spreading to 1 or 2 feet. Queensland to West Australia. Mueller says, 

 " very much liked by sheep, and considered among the best of saline herbage 

 of the salt-bush country." Mr. Farrer pronounces this herb to be " wonder- 

 ful for its pjoductiveness and its drought-iesisting power." This plant has 

 proved most valuable in some of '■' the worst alkali spots " in California, single 

 plants having reached a diameter of 16 feet in one season : " the yield of a 

 full crop is about 20 tons of green material, or calculating on a basis of 75 per 

 cent, water, 5 tons of dry matter per acre. A good season would permit of 

 two such crops," The Agricultural Experimental station of the University 

 of California issued the following account of this variety : " The past years 

 experience with this plant, both on the University station ground at Tulare 

 and on the lands of scores of those furnished with seed or plants, shows that 

 this plant has peerless adaptation for growth on soils too alkaline to support 

 any other useful growth. So strongly are owners of alkali lands impressed 

 with this fact that thousands of acres will be sown this winter. .... The 

 introduction of the plant to owners of waste alkali lands is certainly one of 

 the most striking achievements in the University's long-continued policy of 



