S92 Transactions. — Botany. 



parts of this colony, I have no doubt, this cane would be a most useful 

 plant, both for live stock and for its sugar-bearing qualities, which might be 

 utilized in many ways. 



The Penicillaria spicata — East Indian pearl millet grows here diu'ing 

 the hottest and driest weather, and gives from each root a very large 

 quantity of herbage, as it grows several feet high and 3 feet in diameter. 

 For the north of this island, where other plants will not grow, it is most 

 valuable. Either cut green, or made into hay, it has been known to pro- 

 duce dmiug the year, when cut several times, 9-|tons of dry hay to the 

 acre, which was quite tender and sweet, and readily eaten by the cattle. 



The Cobbet-corii, or forty-day maize, is very hardy and prolific ; although 

 a dwarf kind of maize, it can be sown more closely than the taller-growing 

 varieties, and ripens its corn and arrives at perfection in southern localities 

 where the other kinds do not so easily ripen. It can be saved for its seeds, 

 which horses readily eat, or cut green for fodder, or put away in silos and 

 fed to the live stock in winter. It has proved itself a very quick grower, 

 and ripened well with me. 



The White-dent Corn. — A valuable maize of the best kind to grow for 

 domestic use, as being semi-transparent, white, hard, and of good flavour ; 

 its flour, when grown, is good for private use or export ; after its cobs are 

 removed its stalks and dry leaves are readily eaten by live stock. 



Bice Corn. — A small variety of maize that yields a pretty little trans- 

 parent grain, that may be ground into a good floui-, or the whole plant 

 may be given to hve stock, either green or dry. 



Sugar Corn. — Several varieties of maize under this name were obtained 

 from America and elsewhere, and grown. There are several of these varie- 

 ties well worthy of introduction here as fodder-plants, as they contain a 

 large percentage of sugar. When their cobs have formed grains somewhat 

 hardened, they are best to be cut at this period, as, if then either fed to 

 animals green, or placed in silos according to the French plan, and well 

 trodden down, and covered so that the air is excluded, they may be cut out 

 in the winter, and animals then rapidly fattened and thus got ready for the 

 butcher, when, by reason of the temperatm'e and want of other herbage, 

 very few fat stock are obtainable. 



In America the cobs of these sugar corns are gathered while soft, or 

 before fully ripe, and cooked and eaten, and if any one will try the experi- 

 ment they will find this an excellent vegetable. 



The Sweet Corns are other varieties of maize not having quite as large a 

 proportion of sugar as the sugar corn, but are very useful. 



The above-written are the grasses and fodder-plants that carefully- 

 conducted experiments have proved to me can be grown in New Zealand 



