54* ADDITIONS 
Asparagus acutifolius, Linne. 
In all the countries around the Mediterrean Sea, also in the 
Canary Islands. Although a shrubby Asparagus, yet the root- 
shoots, according to Dr. Heldreich, are collected in Greece, and 
are tender and of excellent taste, though somewhat thinner 
than those of the ordinary herbaceous species. The shrub 
grows on stony rises, and the shoots are obtained without 
cultivation. A. aphyllus L. and A. horridus L., according to Dr. 
Reinhold, are utilized in the same manner, and all may probably 
yield an improved produce by regular and careful culture. 
% 
Asparagus laricinus, Burchell. 
South Africa. Dr. Pappe observes of this shrubby species, that 
with some other kinds of that country, it produces shoots of 
excellent tenderness and aromatic taste. 
Astragalus pamassi, Boissier. 
{A. Cylleneus, Heldreich). Greece. This small shrub furnishes 
there almost exclusively the commercial Tragacanth. It ascends 
to elevations of 7000 feet, becomes therefore alpine. 
Atalantia glauca, J. Hooker. 
New South Wales and Queensland. This desert-lemon is men- 
tioned here to draw attention to the likelihood of its improving 
in culture, and to its fitness of being grown in arid land. 
Atriplex nummularium, Bindley. 
From Queensland through the desert-tracts to Victoria and 
South Australia. One of the tallest and most fattening and 
wholesome of our pastoral salt-bushes, and although a native 
plant even here highly recommendable for artificial rearing, as 
the spontaneously growing plants, by close occupation of the 
sheep and cattle runs, have largely disappeared, and as this 
useful bush even here in many wide tracts does not exist. 
Atriplex spongiosum, F. v. Mueller. 
Through a great part of Central Australia, extending to the 
west -coast. Available like the preceding, and like A. halimoides, 
A. holocarpum and several other species for saltbush culture. 
A vena elatior, Linne. 
Europe, Middle Asia, North Africa. This tall grass should not 
be passed altogether on this occasion, although it becomes easily 
irrepressible on account of its wide creeping roots. It should 
here be chosen for dry and barren tracts of country, it having 
proved to resist our occasional droughts even better than Rye- 
grass. The bulk yielded by it is great, it submits well to 
