HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



175 



to adapt themselves to the new fodder and other 

 plants. They know the naturally poisonous Aus- 

 tralian plants, such as the creeping 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 poisoned plants, it is sure to be the youug or 

 the newly imported ones. Again, the thistle (origin- 

 ally introduced by an over-patriotic Scotchman) has 

 spread all over the colonies. At first it was a new 

 terror — even yet this idea has not disappeared. But 

 sheep and cattle have learned that the heads of the 

 thistle (the receptacle) are nutty in flavour and 

 nutritious ; and I was told that in seasons of drought, 

 and consequent vegetable dearth, the much-despised 

 thistle now annually saves the lives of thousands of 

 cattle and sheep. 



One is not much surprised that such a traditionally 

 cunning animal as the fox has likewise changed his 

 habit. The universal tradition of the world, civilised 

 and uncivilised, has always represented him as a 

 zoological "Vicar of Bray." Of course he does 

 not belong to Australia — he was taken there, like 

 Samson, to make sport for the Philistines. But he 

 has changed a good many of his old-fashioned ideas 

 and tastes out at the Antipodes. He now prefers 

 young lambs to poultry, and he even allows the 

 rabbit to go scot-free. He thinks the latter is too 

 much trouble to catch, and that it is not worth much 

 even when caught. Consequently, the English fox 

 is assuming the natural propensities of the dingo, or 

 native wild dog, to which he is nearly allied. 



English hares have also been introduced into the 

 colonies, and they have shared in the general 

 zoological changes. I saw individuals which weighed 

 sixteen pounds — and from twelve to fourteen pounds is 

 a common weight for them to attain. Nobody eats 

 rabbits in Australia— except in the cities — they are 

 regarded as we regard rats, as vermin. Few people 

 even eat hares, but they are occasionally consumed 

 in the form of hare-soup. But not only has the 

 English hare increased in size and weight, but also 

 in its reproductive powers. It often brings forth 

 five and even six leverets at a birth. When hunted 

 it takes to the earth — thus in various ways approxi- 

 mating to the habits and natural history of its 

 kinsman, the rabbit. 



Even the European honey-bees, which have been 

 introduced into Australia — and which have crushed 

 out or are crushing out of existence the native 

 bees, as surely as white men have replaced the 

 blacks — have partaken in the universal change. 

 They are there running quite contrary to Sir John 

 Lubbock's and Grant Allen's ideas, as to their 

 frequenting only the latest evolved and the most 

 highly specialised of flowers. With them in Australia, 

 matter-of-fact is overcoming their traditional bota- 

 nical Eestheticism. There they visit the flowers of 



grasses, unattractive though they are, for the sake 

 of their abundant pollen. Perhaps, at some distant 

 period, the floral characters of the Australian grasses 

 may be altered or modified, in consequence of thus 

 being unexpectedly fertilised by insects, instead of 

 by the wind as they usually are ! 



And, speaking of grasses and plants, I could not 

 help noticing that a vegetable invasion of Australia 

 has taken place pari passu with that of white men, 

 sheep, cattle, rabbits, foxes, sparrows, turkeys, etc. 

 A crowd of vegetable new-comers, of no economical 

 importance, are competing for the mastery even - 

 where. All of them are vegetable emigrants. Some 

 of them may have been introduced intentionally by 

 man, but it is certain others have not. Thus every- 

 where in pastures there is the milk thistle (Silybuni 

 marianum), somewhat rare with us — overrunning 

 everything in rich Australian pastures, and only 

 eatable by pigs ; also clover, trefoil, nettles, daisies, 

 dandelions, chickweed, Cape-weed (the latter covers 

 thousands of square miles alone, especially in South 

 Australia), stork's-bill, goat's-beard, mallow (which 

 latter has brought its own vegetable parasite, 

 Puccinia malvacearum, with it), and many others, 

 too numerous to mention. The introduction of 

 plants, shrubs and trees has reacted on the habits 

 of the native birds. Many of the parakeets — which 

 are usually grain-feeders, or honey-suckers from the 

 cups of mealy pUcs — now attack the cherry orchards. 

 The cockatoos — especially the common white ones — 

 have manifested a strange love for the chick-weed, 

 and they devour it greedily, and put themselves in 

 peril to obtain it, although they seem to have learned 

 the distance to which a gun can carry as well as the 

 English rook. 



ABRUS PRECATORIUS : A LEGUMINOSE. 



THOSE who have visited the Indian and Colonial 

 Exhibition, or, as it is barbarously called, the 

 Colinderies, will no doubt have noticed in a number 

 of different courts a curious pea-like seed of a light 

 red colour with a black patch ; in one court I noticed 

 a number of caps and ornaments made entirely out 

 of the seed of Mimosa glauca and this red seed, 

 which has for its scientific name that of Abrus 

 precatorius. 



But this is not the only name which will be found 

 on the different specimens ; some have the name of 

 Reglion sauvage, cascarella, jequirity seed, snake's- 

 eyes — and in fact the names are legion, but they 

 are all applied to the one seed Abrus precatorius, 

 called precatorius because it is much used for Roman 

 Catholic rosaries in some parts of the world. 



This seed is that of a plant which once had a 

 name for curing certain diseases of the eye, but I 

 believe there is not much foundation for this 

 reputation. 



