34 ON SOME OF THE INTRODUCED PLANTS OF QUEENSLAND, 



but Euplorlia is not one of ours. The pretty little Euphorbia 

 peplus, Linn., lias made several attempts to establish itself here as 

 a garden weed, but without success. But a more pretentious 

 member of the same order has not found any difficult}^ in spreading 

 all over the country. This is Bicinus communis, Linn., or the 

 castor-oil plant. It has a Targe number of varieties. Some are 

 really superb, notably those which grow along the side of the 

 South- Western railway on the main range between Brisbane and 

 Toowoomba. 



The common European nettle TJrtica urens,, Linn., has obtained 

 a firm footing, and has been falsely accused of poisoning sheep 

 and cattle. This undeserved slander, it has had to bear, in 

 common with many a harmless plant in Queensland. It is very 

 common for stock owners, when they lose any of their sheep or 

 cattle by disease, drought, climate, or other causes, to visit the 

 misfortune on the innocent heads of some of the most useful plants 

 which help to feed them. 



Of Labiatee, the common horehound (Marrulium vulgarc, Linn.) 

 is naturalized here, as it is in all Australia, but it is never found 

 far away from stockyards and such places. By some of the 

 graziers it is considered very beneficial to sheep. 



The water parsnip f Si um. lat (folium, Linn.) is regarded as an 

 introduced plant by Messrs. Bentham and Mueller in the "Flora 

 Australieusis." It is so very abundant in the swamps and water 

 courses of the main range, and has evidently such a place in the 

 vegetation, that I very much doubt if it be not a native. I well 

 remember seeing it in the very earliest days of the colony of South 

 Australia, where in the creeks of the Mount Lofty Ranges it was 

 apparently an indigenous plant. 



The following six species are known as ' ' escapes " from gardens 

 and are never found far from cultivation : — Ipomcea purpurea, 

 Both.; Ficiis pumila, Linn., (the common climbing fig of gardens) ; 

 Sorghum halepense, Pers. ; PonUderia cordata, Linn., (found a few 



