BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 353 
|. 
- Greenmount, it contains large angular fragments of quartz 
and whinstone imbedded in it. The lower slopes of the hills, 
called by the aborigines Wallup and Neerdup, on strong 
: clay soil with fragments of quartz and ironstone, produce the 
- Eucalyptus, called White-Gum by the settlers; the cuticle is 
deciduous as in Platanus, and what remains of the bark is 
White, from whence comes the name; it is one of our largest 
 forest-trees, growing with an unbranched trunk generally to 
- 60 feet high at least. This sort of land generally yields little 
underwood or scrub as the settlers term it, but affords a differ- 
ent species of Xanthorrhea, with tough and wiry leaves, which 
- grows to the height of the common kind, but the flower-stalk 
is shorter, and never divides into branches. In botanical 
characters it comes near the glaucous-leaved York Black- 
boy, but that species I have not seen to the west of the Dar- 
ling range. It is in this sort of land, especially on the banks 
- of streams of water which run through it in winter, where our 
sheep, goats, and cattle, get the poisonous plant that de- 
stroys so many of them, and the prevalence of which is a 
greater drawback to our colony than allits other disadvantages 
s put together. Symptoms of a strong vegetable poison are 
| very apparent on the animals which thus die, the stomach 
assumes a brown colour, and is tenderer than it should be; 
but it appears to me that the poison enters into the circula- 
tion, and altogether stops the action of the lungs and heart. 
The finest and strongest animals are the first to fall victims; 
à difficulty of breathing is perceptible for a few minutes, when 
they stagger, drop down, and it is all over with them. : I 
Strongly suspect that it is the genus Lobelia which poisons. 
them, and particularly the Lobelia hypocr ateriformis* of Mr 
Brown. I send you a paper of seeds of this beautiful plant, 
- for itis assuredly beautiful, although suspected to be so danger- 
ous. It produces snow-white, deep purple, and lilac flowers, 
and varieties of all the intermediate shades; it has a curious 
j Br ii. s 
.. * Figured in Curtis’ Botanical Magazine, tab. 3075 ;—it is now called. = 
Vol, IL— No. 15. E Sx dele m 
