Flora of Australia. 95 



E. chamaesyce. It is true that some specimens of the hitter 

 are nearly, or quite, ghibrous ; that the capsules and seeds are 

 much alike, beintr quadranjjfular and reddish-brown turning to 

 a grey and Avhite, somewhat wrinkled surface, and that the 

 stipules show similar variations of shape in both species, but 

 E. Brummondii is a perennial instead of an annual, the 

 involucre and its glands differ, and the " flowers "' are more 

 sparsely scattered and less clustered. Apart from that, it is 

 unlikely that a species (E. chamaesycej restricted to the coun- 

 tries around the Mediterranean, including N. Africa, should 

 be represented by a variety spread over the whole of Australia, 

 without any intervening forms or varieties occurring in the 

 intervening districts, which include large tracts of country 

 similar in character to those in which the two species flourish. 



E. Brummondii has long been regarded as intensely 

 poisonous to stock, mainly on the authority of Baron von 

 Mueller. Careful investigations by Stanley (Agricultural 

 Gazette of New South Wales, 1890; 1896, p. 319) have, how- 

 ever, shown not only that the plant is not poisonous, but that 

 it has a certain fodder value, especially for sheep. By causing 

 hoven or tympanitis, the plant may cause the death of sheep, 

 but in precisely the same way as all succulent fodders may do, 

 when sheep are allowed to gorge upon them, especially after 

 being weakened hx starvation or exhausted by travelling. 



E. rluuiiaesyce was a medicinal plant -svell known to the 

 ancients, and was used by them internally as a purge, and 

 externally for painful ulcers, warts, scorpion stings, spots on 

 the nails, and weak eyes. Many attempts have been made to 

 extract a poisonous principle from both these species, especially 

 from E. Brumnioudii, but without success, so that their non- 

 poisonous character may be regarded as definitely established. 



Grevillea Pkitzelii, Diels. Fragm. Phytog. Austr. Occid. 

 Engler's Bot. Jahrb., xxxv., p. 150, 1905. (Proteaceae). 

 M. Koch, Dec, 1904, No. 991. 



Specimens of this shrub have been received, labelled, from 

 one source, Grevillea conciiinn,, R. Br. ; syn. G. Pritzelii, Diels, 

 and from another source, labelled as G. anniyrra, Meissner. 



