A REMARKABLE PLANT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19240, 2 August 1924, Page 19

A REMARKABLE PLANT.

NUTRITION THROUGH LEAVES. DANGER OF EXTERMINATION. (Feom Otnt Own Correspondent ) SYDNEY, Julv 25. Professor Osborne, of Adelaide University, has uttered a timely warning against tho extermination through indiscriminate grazing upon it, of one of Australia’s most valuable and peculiar plants—tho saltbush —which has saved many a pastoralist from ruin in drought time, and many a thousand head of stock from death. Throughout much of arid Australia grew the well-known salt and blue bushes, the Professor said. Plant life in the saltbush country might bo conveniently grouped in three classes, he pointed out. First there were the natural grasses and flowering herbs. These grew in amazing numbers aiter suitable heavy rains. However, they as quickly died away, and passing into seed they formed no per-

manent plant societies to fix the soil. The abundance of natural grasses after suitable rains was a characteristic feature of many true deserts. Valuable as such grasses might bo for feed, it was merely temporary. To maintain a largo animal population in the area, longer-lived fodder plants were needed. This was especially true where, in much of arid South Australia, we had drought extending over a period of years, and not a regular alternation of wet and dry seasons. Secondly, there were many low trees and woody shrubs. Many ol these wero edible, such as tho mulga and sandalwood, (Myoporoum). The combined effect of sheep and rabbits had been to destroy the seedlings of these plants. Unless some measures could bo taken to allow of seedlings to bo established, the ultimate extermination of such valuable plants as the mulga and sandalwood could only be a matter of time. E articular]y as mistletoes of various kinds ad become thick on old plants. Less palatable shrubs, on tho other hand, did not suffer to the same degree. Lastly there wero many kinds of half-shrubby, juicy-

leafed plants—salt and blue bushes. These formed tjie most important plant covering on sometimes vast areas They were all more or less edible, but varied greatly in their palatability and feeding value. Therefore, if heavily grazed, the more nutritious kinds tended to be eaten out bocacso they were more palatable. In extreme cases they might wholly disappear. When this was so. inedible plants, such a-s malice weeds dZygophyllura) took the place of saltbush, or even no permanent vegetation might grow. Tho effect of eating out saltbush did, it was true, make room for more grasses, but as these were only annuals there might, bo long periods when tho area was littlo better than a “desert.” Saltbushes were able to benefit hy rainfalls that wero too small in amount to affect the roots. Many of the plants growing in arid regions of South Africa and the United States of America commonly stored water in their leaves or stems, which thus became very fleshy. Finch succulences were surprisingly rare in arid Australia. However, the Australian salt-bushes, because of their remarkable powers to take water through the leaves, could utilize the light falls of rain that were such features of our arid areas. A THEATREGOER’S COMPLAINT. TO THE EDITOR, Sir,—May I, through the columns of your paper, express my disgust at the way the public are treated at places of amusement in this city. On Saturday night last I went up to Fullers’ Vaudeville and paid 3s 3d (not that I am complaining about tho price) for a "front stall” seat. Imagine my chagrin when, instead of finding a seat near tho front, I was placed two rows from the front of the back stalls. Immediately behind me was a shrieking woman, whoso husband persisted in whistling tho songs that wore being sung. I am not complaining that tho show was not worth the money, but at the fact that you may buy seats in good faith of their being what they are represented to be, and find that, instead of front stalls, they are originally back stalls, ns they are used every night bar Saturday nights as such.—l am, etc., Fair Deal. [Wo are informed by the fnanagement that patrons applying for seats of tho kind mentioned are customarily told when, owing to Saturday night reservations, the seats available are some distance back, and if they elect to take such seats and arc not satisfied with them, their money is returnable on application.— Ed. O.D.T.] HOSPITAL METHODS. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— ln your leading article re Hospital affairs you suggest that there is lit tie ground fer a general impression that things go on in the Hospital that the public is not a ware of. I can tell of at least one thing—that is. the waking of patients and making their beds at 3 o’clock in the morning. As a patient at the hospital I thought it a must inhuman thing, and oiler leaving Hospital I appealed to tho trustees to put a stop to it, and was referred to the doctor and tho matron, who both said it was quite against tho rules and was never done. But every patient in tho Hospital knows that it is done, and should not be allowed. —I am, etc.. Ex-patient.