BY F. M. BAILEY, F.L.S. 17 



There are two of our indigenous plants of this order that will 

 doubtless before long be in great request. First, Duboisia 

 myoporoicles, E. Br. So far back as 1861 we find Eev. William 

 Woolls, F.L.S. , drawing attention to this tree, stating that it was 

 used by the aborigines on account of its toxicant properties ; he 

 says '' they make holes in the trunk and put some fluid in them, 

 which when drunk on the following morning produces stupor 

 also that branches of this tree are thrown into pools for the 

 purpose of intoxicating the eels and bringing them to the surface." 

 Dr. Bancroft has found that an extract from the leaves dilates the 

 pupil of the eye better than Belladonna, and in an article in the 

 Lancet, Feb., 15th, 1879, by Professor Soelberg Wells, F.E.C.S., 

 on the use of Dr. Bancroft's JDuhoisia he says : — " A four grain 

 solution of duboisin produces a much more rapid dilation of the 

 pupil and powerful action on the muscle of accommodation than 

 a solution of atrophine of the same strength. The pupil in a 

 normal eye becomes dilated ad, maximum in ten to twenty 

 minutes, the accommodation (if there is no spasm of the muscle) 

 paralysed in twenty to forty minutes this lasting for three or four 

 days." The other B. Hopwoodii, F. v. M., furnishes the natives 

 of our Western Districts with their strong narcotic, called Pituri. 

 While the European genera of ScrophularinecB contains many 

 valuable medicinal herbs, the Australian genera seems to be of 

 little importance in medicine although a few are used as Herpestis 

 moimieria, H. B. and K., a small trailing plant with rather thick 

 fleshy, oblong leaves and white flowers. In India the expressed 

 juice of the leaves mixed with Petroleum is used for rubbing 

 parts affected with rheumatic pains. Another little shrubby 

 plant, bearing small white flowers, and leaves in whorls of three, 

 called Scoparia dulcis, L., is met with from Eockhampton north- 

 ward. Of this plant an infusion is used by the Indians in 

 Spanish America to cure agues. In Brazil the expressed juice 

 which is mucilaginous is employed as a cooling- drink. Perhaps 

 if properly examined our commoii swamp herb — QratiQla 







