Poisonous S/)e('les of Honhi'rhi at Pascoc Vale. 211 



with (Hioting tVom sncli a well-known work as Bentley's 

 " Manual of Botany," otli Ed, 1887. At pa<,^e 703, lie 

 ■Hays: — " Moraen (Homevia). Some species of tliis genus, 

 more especially that of M. eollhia, and of other iridaceous 

 plants known under the name of "Tnlp" at the Cape, have 

 poisonous properties, and have been the cause of fatal 

 results to cattle which have chanced to eat it. " Tulp " is 

 also poisonous to human beings." lledwood refers to 

 Homevia colliiia as (Jape Tulip, and as a plant well known 

 to almost every child in the Colony (Ca})e of Good Hope). 



Reasons for Investkiatiox. 



Apart altogether from the pi-actical imjjortance of the 

 ■subject, there were two main reasons Avhich induced us to 

 enter upon the investigation. 



First, the poisonous ])lants introduced into Victoria have 

 not yet been caretully recorded, and therefore any one to 

 which su.spicion attached was worthy of being enquiied 

 into, and its poisonous properties, if present, determined. 

 In Queensland, a work has been prepared by F. M. Bailey, 

 F.L.8., Colonial Botanist, and P. R. (lordon, Chief Inspector 

 of Stock, entitled " Plants Re])uted Poisonous and Injurious 

 to Stock," but there is no mention in it of this one, nor 

 even of the natural order to which it belongs. Also in New 

 South Wales, the Botanist to the Department of Agriculture, 

 Mr. Turner, has a paper on "The Sui)[)().sed Poisonous Plants 

 of New South Wales (both Indigenous and Exotic)," in 

 A(j. Gaz. Vol. 11, Part 3, 1891, but thei-e is no reference to 

 this plant or its order. Hence, a possible new poison plant, 

 as ixv as these Colonies are concerned, deserved to Ijc 

 satisfactorily determined, in order to prevent its further 

 distribution. Such a determination is a necessary pi-e- 

 liminary stej) to its eradication, just as in Western Australia, 

 where certain poisoned land, as it is ealled, can only Ije 

 obtained on conditions of exterminating the poison plant, 

 which is only dangerous at certain seasons of the yem-. 



Second, as the cows which died at Pascoe Vale were said 

 by skilled veterinary surgeons to have died from anthrax, 

 and not from any supposed poisonous weed, this became a 

 strong additional reason for sifting the matter to the bottom, 

 and seeing if, after all, the reputed poisonous weed was 

 simply an imagination of tlie cattle owners. 



P 2 



