13 



different flavour, and are afc any rate a change from those that 

 we have been accustomed to for so long. One of the varieties 

 yields a very large amount of bines, and will no doubt be found 

 useful as a forage plant, as well as for its tubers, as cuttings of 

 the bines may be freely taken without apparently diminishing 

 the yield of tubers. Another variety produces but a small 

 quantity of bines, which reach only a very short distance from 

 the root, but the produce of all of them is very similar, and 

 which of them may be most profitably grown may be a matter 

 for experiment. 



Atriplex spp. — Seeds of several species of this genus have 

 been repeatedly received from Australia, chiefly from the late 

 Baron F. v. Mueller ; they have been tried here, plants have 

 been raised and put out in the Gardens but have invariably 

 dwindled away, and eventually died off ; numbers of packets of 

 seed have been given away to applicants, but I have not heard 

 of a single case in which any of the plants have been success- 

 fully reared, and think it most likely that they will not succeed 

 in Natal, except it may be in an alkaline soil, of which we do 

 not appear to have much in the Colony. I have, however, 

 received from the United States Government, seeds of another 

 species of this genus, Atriplex canescens, of which Mr. F. Lam- 

 son Scribner, the States Agrostologist. says : — " ] send you by 

 mail to-day a small sample of seed of one of our native forage 

 plants, Atriplex canescens, James, locally known as " Shad 

 Scale," "White Sage," or " Sweet Sage," It was formerly one 

 of the chief reliances of the cattle men on the arid plains from 

 Western Texas to Arizona, but has now become almost extinct, 

 occurring only on steep cliffs and in protected situations where 

 cattle and sheep cannot reach it." This plant will have a fair 

 trial here and will be noticed in a future report. 



Desmodium tortuosum, " Florida Beggar Weed." — In Septem- 

 ber I received from the same gentleman a packet of seed of this 

 plant about which he says that it is "A wild forage plant 

 highly esteemed in the subtropical portion of the United States. 

 It produces a fodder of fine quality in large quantities, and 

 grows best on sandy soils containing lime. On cultivated lands 

 it grows often 8 to 10 feet high. The haulms, though woody, 

 are eaten by cattle and working stock of all kinds. Beggar 

 Weed makes an excellent green manure. In Florida it is 

 extensively used as a renewer of worn lands. It promises to 

 be a plant of much agricultural value in the warmer countries." 

 This seed w T as sown at once on receipt, and the plants are now 

 from 12 to 15 inches high, and growing vigorously, seed will 

 most likely be obtained from it for distribution, and I quite ex- 

 pect to be again told that " cattle will not eat it," but farmers 

 must surely understand that cattle require a little management 



