ON THE NORTH-AUSTKALIAN EXPEDITION. 145 



kind of yellow wood, which attained some celebrity in New South 

 Wales. According to an examination of the fruit, it is yielded by 

 a second species of Asadirachta. The only indigenous Ery- 

 throxylon, a small tree not uncommon in East Australia, produces 

 in all probability a red dye similar to that of its congeners. 



With regard to the medical properties of the plants, observed 

 during the expedition, I may allude to the tonic bitterness of 

 several Goodeniacecd, of Canscora diffusa (which is identical with 

 Orthostemon erectus^ E. Br.), and of a new genus of Simarubece 

 {Picroxylon), with a wood similar to that of Quassia. The Euca- 

 lyptus kino might be procured in boundless quantities. The bark 

 ■ of the Red Cedar- tree {Cedrela Australis) seems to offer a good 

 substitute for that of Cedrela Toona and G.fehrifuga. 



The occurrence of some virulent vegetable poison in North-west 

 Australia manifested itself by the loss of several of our horses on 

 three occasions, and I deplore that I failed to ascertain the plant 

 which caused this calamity. In its effects this poison is even 

 more active than that of Gastrololium and GompholoUum, which 

 are so destructive to the herds of Western Australia, and its action 

 on the stomach of the animals inflammatory in a high degree. 

 These losses happened on the rocky edges of the sandstone table- 

 land near rivulets lined with Pandanu^ spiralis ; but I searched 

 in vain in these localities for plants, the natural alliance of which 

 would justify any suspicion. 



My previous remark on the preponderance of grasses, does not 

 merely allude to their diversity in species, but applies equally to 

 their gregarious distribution over a great part of the country. 

 Numerous species of Fanicum and Andropogon, several of Anthi- 

 stiria, Foa, Sporobolus, Ectrosia, Eriachne, Saccharum, and Fott- 

 hoellia, a Faspalum, a Dactyloctenium, a kind of rice, and many 

 other grasses of equal value for pasture, cover either the basaltic 

 plains, the valleys, or the fertile undulations. An Ischcemum- 

 reed of vast abundance on the banks of the Victoria Eiver offered 

 additional food for our horses. But all the extensive sandstone 

 elevations are devoid of nutritious forage, and the harsh or rigid 

 forms of Triodia, Aristida, and TrirapMs supersede the tender 

 grasses of the lower ground. 



The rainy season, which we observed to last from November 

 till January, renews with a wonderful rapidity the grasses and the 

 herbaceous vegetation at the hottest season. To this circum- 

 stance we have principally to ascribe the continuance of grass in a 

 nutritious state throughout a longer period of the year than in 



LINN. PROC. — BOTANY. L 



