55 
the climate, may be found, if properly tested by experiment and 
analysis, to be quite as nutritious. 
Under a sort of fatuity we neglect the plants growing in our 
own soils and search all over the world for new kinds of fodder 
plants, without giving a thought to those growing in our near 
vicinity. There are many native grasses and saltbushes adapted 
to withstand the most severe droughts, and all that is done is to 
take advantage of the bounty of Nature and use up all the herbage 
provided till it is in danger of extermination. The grasses are 
known to be highly nutritious, but no steps are taken to preserve 
them or to extend the area of their growth ; while the saltbushes, 
though they have been analysed and proved in foreign countries 
to have high feeding qualities, receive scarcely any consideration. 
In connection with this subject we have to distinguish between 
perennial plants and annuals. The pastoralists are concerned 
with the former, but their scheme of development of the country 
grazed upon does not often include provision for the future 
continuance of the fodder plants originally provided. On the 
other hand the cultivator of the soil imports plants from foreign 
countries, apparently without always considering whether the 
conditions of existence here are fairly comparable with those of 
their home country. Fodder plants from India, with its combina- 
tion of heat and moisture, may grow here, but they could not be 
expected to do as well in our dry season as in their own home. 
Some plants from that country or from the basin of the Nile might 
produce abundance of fodder or fruit, with the help of irrigation ; 
but land is so plentiful and the population is so scanty in Western 
Australia that irrigation does not recommend itself to cultivators. 
APPENDIX. 
Notes on Plants specially mentioned, with Plates II. to V. 
Plagianthus Helmsii , F. v. M. and T. 
Natural Order, Malvaceae. The “ dunna-dunna ” of the 
aboriginals, first found at Lake Lefroy by the Naturalist of the 
Elder Expedition, whose name it bears, and also later at Nannine. 
Though to the naked eye appearing bare, the few stout branches 
are completely covered with small rosettes of minute leaves, 
in the centre of which is seated the tiny flower. (Plate II, Fig. i.) 
Eragrostis eriopoda, Benth. 
A grass confined to the North-West Division of Western 
Australia. The base of the stem and lower leaves is covered with 
a felted mass of woolly hairs affording an effective protection 
against the heat and drought of the climate. (Plate II. Fig. 2.) 
