131 
preface to his Mee baa y of Australian Salsolaceous Plants Sir 
Ferdinand von Mueller w 
“The .* salt-bushes ’ bei Hm in many wide tracts of our island- 
continent the prevailing vegetation, and on this depends locally to a 
large extent the sustenance of herds and flocks. Moreover, gu kind of 
pasture nutriment has Ze ed so Mss wholeso diis hat * salt- 
bush” sony has become among Australian ruralists quite famous, 
ore particularly s as (saltbushes) will live even pow the 
direst velofic droughts. 
e adds ;--“ That under such circumstances these si a plants 
may finally succumb through continuous depasturing, cannot be sur- 
prising ; thus, the necessity is foreed on the proprietors or “holder of 
‘runs’ to renew the salt-bush vegetation "e methodieal sowing 
Sir Ferdinand Mueller wrote June 2, 1894 :—'* The frosts 36 which 
in the dry interior of Australia the best shrubby species of Atriplex are 
exposed are not severe. They may, however, survive, perhaps, rather 
AES d frosts, and spring from the root again. For testing this we have 
ready means in this mostly winterless clime, I should think that the 
shrubby Australian species of Atriplex will prove to have a similar con- 
E to A. Halimus, which seems to grow naturally not far north 
Mediterranean." 
"Kustlia possesses about 112 species of rity eied belonging vd - 
genera of which eight are peculiar toit. Ofthese hagodia, C; 
Atriplex, Enchylena, Kochia, Chenolea, and Stbrolena, furnish 
salt-bushes av ailable for pasture. For a detailed account of th em 
reference. may be made to Sir Ferdinand Mueller “Iconography ” 
(1889-92) already mentioned, to the same writer's * Select Extr bs opical 
Plants," ninth edition (1895), and to bad excellent mono The 
Forage Plants of Australia " by F. Turner, F.L.S. (1891) published T 
the Department of Agriculture, New South Wales, in which Mr. Turn 
holds the position of botanist. 
Only a few vf the Australian species o. = E wif to prove useful 
in other countries wi iscussed in this 
Their value is clearly pointed by Mr. Turne we (p. xviii). “Once 
the salt-bush plants es they will continue to grow under 
the most adverse circumstances of drought and Pt heat. In fact, 
very few other kinds of plants so useful for fodd d 
exist under such adverse circumstances as do most kinds of the salt-bush 
family. ‘There is abundant proof that when sheep are depastured in a 
country where plenty of salinous plants are growing among the natural 
grasses, fluke and other allied ailments are almost unknown, t has 
been also said that horses which are subject to swamp cancer on the 
low coast lands, when turned into pasture where `salinous skint are 
plentiful, soon lose this disease.” 
The present position of ‘salt-bush” plants in Australia is, however, 
not satisfactory, E Turner states (zbid.) :—“ These most Med 
ra 
f seed which germinates readily under ordinary conditions. y 
of them also are readily increased by cuttings, so that it would require 
no great outlay to enter upon a proper system of conservation or even 
cultivatio 
And further (p. 66):—“If nothing is done to perpetuate these 
valuable pasture plants, Australian wool will depreciate ; for it is solely 
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