BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 83 



immediately after. Mr Tapson had recently lost 304 sheep, 

 in bringing a flock of 400 from the Gordon River to Egenup, 

 a distance of about thirty miles. He left with us a speci- 

 men of this Leguminous plant which he had observed his 

 sheep eating, and as we found it growing where Mr Harris's 

 sheep had been feeding, we determined to put it to the test of 

 experiment, (for there is nothing either in the taste or smell 

 of the plant that in the least indicates its poisonous properties.) 

 A few handfuls of the young tender shoots were pounded in a 

 mortar, and water added, and the juice squeezed out. We 

 had about a middle-sized tea-cupful of the mixture, of which 

 about three parts out of four were water. It was put into a 

 bottle, and given to a he-goat, a fine healthy animal. About 

 eight o'clock at night the animal ate about an ounce of the 

 plant of his own accord, after he swallowed the juice. At 

 five o'clock in the following morning, he continued to chew 

 his cud, but appeared languid, when we gave him about half 

 as much more of the same mixture. Soon after he got the 

 second dose, he began to call out, as goats always do when 

 suffering from this poison : at ten o'clock he died. We 

 opened him an hour after death, and found the heart and 

 lungs gorged with dark-coloured blood. I have no doubt 

 but the poison operates on the nerves, and in that way alto- 

 gether stops the action of the lungs and heart. I had ob- 

 served this plant at Black- Adder creek where accidents have 

 happened, and on the Toodjay road ; and I have, since we 

 discovered its dangerous properties, found it on the York 

 road, where so many of our animals have been lost. It is a 

 plant that may be easily destroyed near the settlements, and 

 avoided or destroyed on the public roads. There appears 

 to be some reason to hope that flocks of sheep which have 

 been long in, or reared in the colony, learn (for they do not 

 all die that ai'e ill from its effects) in some measure to avoid 

 the plant which destroys so many of them. The first flock 

 of 200 which were brought to the William by Dr Harris 

 without any loss, were part of the late Sir Richard Spencer's, 

 and about 200 more from the same flock were brought over 



