172 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
Wales, where it made rapid growth and promised to be- 
come a valuable fodder plant. He further states that 
“horses prefer the hay to any other fodder plant grown 
in India.’”’ 
““GINGELLY”’ (Sesamum tndicum).—Seeds of this species 
were exhibited, gathered from plants grown at Ashfield. 
The plant is regarded doubtfully as a native of India, 
and belongs to the family Pedaliacew. There are several 
races or forms of the species, differing chiefly in the colour 
of the seed and different habit of branching. Some of the 
best of the forms are cultivated fairly extensively in 
India and Africa, for the seed, which yields oil of com- 
mercial importance. 
The oil is used in the process of dyeing silk a pale 
orange colour, and also for making soap, lamp oil, and 
as a substitute for olive oil; the oil-cake is used as cattle- 
food. 
“Din’??  (Peucedanum graveolens)—Seed of this 
species were also exhibited, gathered from plants grown 
at Ashfield. The original seed was gathered from a crop 
grown in Kent, England, during a visit to England in 
1905; and a few plants had been kept growing ever since. 
The plant is glabrous and herbaceous, somewhat closely re- 
sembling *‘Fennel’’ (oeniculum vulgare), and like that 
plant, is frequently cultivated and used as a vegetable, 
and for its carminative seed, which is used both for 
culinary and medicinal purposes. By distillation, from 
three to four per cent. of oil is obtained from the fruit, 
which is used medicinally, and in mixtures for perfumery. 
MISCELLANEOUS BOTANICAL NOTHS. 
By A. A. Hamilton. 
SCAEVOLA suAvEOLENS, R.Br—A plant which grows 
on the dune-sand at Lady Robinson’s and other coastal 
beaches, part of whose role in the realm of Nature is to 
assist in the work of resisting the encroachment of the 
drift sand by spreading itself carpet-like over a large 
surface. ‘The conditions as to water supply obtaining on 
the beach are not favourable to vegetation, so this, and 
other carpet-forming plants, notably, the ‘‘Pig’s Face,’’ 
with its exceptionally long botanical name, Wesembryanthe- 
