BY J. H. MAIDEN. 497 



acid nature, produces a flow of saliva — a fact well-known to busVi- 

 men who have traversed waterless portions of the country. This 

 acid is closely allied to citric acid, and may prove identical with it. 

 Children chew the young cones, which they call " oak apples." 

 All the colonies except Western Australia and Queensland. 



43. Chenopodium auricomum, Lindl, N.O. Chenopodiacese, 



B.El., v., 159. 



One of the species called " Fat-hen." 



This is another of the salt-bushes, which, besides being 

 invaluable food for stock, can be eaten by man. All plants of the 

 Natural Order Chenopodiacese (Salsolacese), are more or less useful 

 in this respect. 



The following account of its practical utilization will be of 

 interest. 



" We have recently gathered an abundant harvest of leaves 

 from two or three plants growing in our garden. These leaves 

 were put into boiling water to bleach them, and they were then 

 cooked as an ordinary dish of spinach, with this difference in 

 favour of the new plant, that there was no occasion to take away 

 the threads which are so disagreeable in chicory, sorrel, and 

 ordinary spinach. We partook of this dish with relish — the 

 flavour, analogous to spinach, had something in it more refined, 

 less grassy in taste. The cultivation is easy — sow the seed in 

 April (October) in a well-manured bed, for the plant is greedy ; 

 water it. The leaves may be gathered from the time the plant 

 attains 50 centimetres (say 20 inches) in height. They grow up 

 again quickly. In less than eight days afterwards another 

 gathering may take place, and so on to the end of the year." 

 [Journal de la Ferme et des Maisons de Compagne, quoted in 

 Pharm. Journ. [2] viii., 734.) 



In all the colonies except Tasmania and Western Australia. 



44. Chenopodium murale, Linn., (Syn. G. erosum, R.Br.), 



N.O. Chenopodiacese, B.Fl., v., 160. Bentham considers 

 this may have been introduced, and Mueller (Cens.) omits 

 it altogether. 



