74 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-G OSS IP. 



ANIMALS AND PLANTS IN AUSTRALIA. 



IN the number for August of Science-Gossip, in 

 your article entitled "A Month with the 

 Squatters of Western Victoria," occurs the following 

 passage: "In Australia it is remarkable how they 

 (sheep and cattle) also have learned to adapt them- 

 selves to the new fodder and other plants. They 

 know the naturally poisonous Euphorbia, now, as 

 well as their ancestors knew the poisonous plants at 

 home. At first they ate all the plants they came 

 across, and many died, but they soon learned to 

 discriminate. Now, if any sheep or cattle die from 

 eating poisonous plants, it is sure to be the young or 

 newly imported ones." Apropos of which a few 

 extracts from a paper read by Mr. Gordon, on the 

 " Suspected Poison Plants in Queensland," before the 

 Australian Stock Conference, last October, may not 

 prove uninteresting to your readers. 



" The number of poison or suspected poison plants 



sent to me or to the Colonial botanist, from all 



istricts of the colony, is forty-two. Thirty-lour of 



these are common to Queensland and New South 



Wales, many of them also to Victoria. 



" The Gastrolobium grandiflorum, the wallflower, 

 Australian or Desert-poison bush, is first deserving of 

 notice. There are belts of this plant through which 

 it is impossible to travel bullocks and sheep without 

 constantly watching them and yarding them at night. 

 Before [the line of railway was constructed through 

 the belt on the Great Northern line, parties travelling 

 in charge of valuable stud sheep had to muzzle 

 them during the day, and carry hay for the purpose 

 of feeding them in bush yards during the night. 



" The next in order is the Swainsonia galigifolia, the 

 dark red flowered indigo bush, with its variations 

 Coronillefolia (the rosy flower), and the Albiflora (the 

 white flower). This plant is generally recognised 

 under the name of Indigo or Darling pea. It is not 

 an irritant poison, but when sheep once eat it, it is 

 difficult to break them of the habit. They become 

 what the shepherds term "cranky," and separate 

 themselves from the flock. Mr. Staiger, late Govern- 

 ment analyst for Queensland, experimented with an 

 extract from the plant, and found it to be a powerful 

 diaphoretic ; when applied to frogs, rats, and mice 

 under confinement, the animals literally sweat to 

 death. 



" Of the Euphorbias, the E. drummondii and the 

 E. cremophila are the only two that have been 

 brought under my notice as poisonous. The effects 

 of the former (called by the stockowners the caustic 

 creeper) on sheep are curious. The head swells to 

 such an enormous extent that the sheep has frequently 

 to drag it along the ground, and there is frequently 

 suppuration of the ears. Like the gastrolobium 

 analysts would seem to have a difficulty in detecting 

 poison, except in green specimens, and drovers state 



that it is only poisonous when eaten before being 

 dried by the sun. 



' ' The Datura stramonium and the D. leiehhardtii 

 (native thorn apple) are both poisonous to cattle, but 

 are rarely eaten except by quiet milkers, or during 

 seasons of drought, when food is scarce. 



"The Nicotiana suaveolcns (native tobacco) and the 

 Biilbine bulbosa (the native leek or onion) both cause 

 numerous deaths amongst travelling sheep. 



" The Xanthhim strumarium (Noogoora burr), a 

 plant introduced into Queensland with cotton seed 

 from the Southern States of America, when young 

 and succulent is readily eaten by cattle, and many 

 deaths have been the result. 



" The Xanthhnn spinontm (the Eathurst burr) is 

 also of a poisonous nature. 



"With both of the above-named plants, losses in 

 stock are as a rule confined to travelling sheep and 

 cattle. Rarely do sheep bred on the runs, on which 

 they are prevalent, eat them, or if they do fatal 

 results rarely occur." 



Among other plants condemned by various mem- 

 bers of the Conference were the prickly pear, and the 

 Californian thistle, not as poisonous, but on account 

 of the damage they do to the land. In the valley of 

 the Hunter it would cost £\o an acre to clear the 

 land of the prickly pear. 



"The roots of the Californian thistle run down 

 eight to ten feet, and then throw out laterals. If the 

 plough went over them and carried away ever so 

 small a portion, a fresh plant grew ; its presence was 

 considered to depreciate the land 75 per cent. 



"In South Australia the plant known as the 

 variegated thistle grew to a height of ten feet in rich 

 gullies. 



" In Tasmania the common thistle has been seen 

 so thick that a man could not ride through them. 



' '.The pine scrub has increased to such an extent in 

 the Murray district that the number of sheep main- 

 tained has fallen from 25,000 to 2,000. 



" The Bathurst burr causes a most serious loss to 

 wool growers ; in some instances the price of wool 

 has been decreased ^d. per pound, and in some cases 

 more ; the fleece is sometimes double its proper 

 weight, owing to the presence of burrs. A single 

 plant would produce 2000 to 3000 seeds." 



Perhaps it is only right to add, all the plants 

 mentioned in Mr. Gordon's paper were identified and 

 named by the Colonial botanist, Mr. F. M. Baily, 

 F.L.S. 



Harry Moore. 



It is a pleasure to call attention to the Supple- 

 mentary Catalogue of the books added to the 

 Lending Department of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Public 

 Libraries. It is compiled by Mr. W. J. Haggerstone, 

 chief librarian, and is a model of neat and succinct 

 arrangement. 



