ioDec, 1908.] Proclaimed Plants of Victoria. 737 



flowering begins in August, and usually lasts at least two months, the 

 capsules continuing to ripen until Noveniber or December, before which 

 time the leaves have died down. The seeds germinate mostly early in the 

 following season when the soil is moist, some may retain their vitality 

 apparently for a few year's in the soil. 



The ripe corms when crushed yield relatively large amounts of fine- 

 quality starch. They are eaten by pigs and cockatoos, which in some 

 parts have cleared whole districts more or less thorO'Ughly. 



Eradication. — The plant is a sun-loving one, preferring hard, dry, 

 more or less bare, unshaded groiind, vegetating in winter time and resting 

 during summer. Poisons are utterly useless, as with nearly all weeds. 



Cultivation soon suppresses it, winter wheat, followed by farmyard 

 manure and potatoes, being especially good for the first two years; but 

 a green fodder crop is equally good if it is up early in the year, and stands 

 over winter. Poncing off and resting a portion of the pasture each winter 

 will aid the grasses greatly in suppressing the weed. The treading of 

 stock on wet ground is very bad for any pasture, if the soil is given no 

 chance to loosen out and become porous again. The spread and damage 

 done by this weed is mainly due to improper pasturage methods. All 

 continually grazed and cropped pastures steadilv deteriorate, especially 

 when the practice is added of collecting ajid carrying away the droppings 

 to cultivated land, instead of spreading the droppings and loosening the 

 soil by the aid of scarifiers. Pasture land which is divided into paddocks 

 by good wind-proof hedges, rested from time to time, enriched with 

 humus instead of being robbed of it, and kept open and pervious by the 

 use of scarifiers, will not be troubled by onion grass to any great extent, 

 will have a less tendency to become tussocky, and will carry twice the 

 amount of stock that one large paddock with continuous grazing and 

 cropping would do. Further, the difference in carrying power will be 

 even more pronounced in times of drought than in winter time. 



When the leaves are quite young stock will browse on the onion grass, 

 but they are not foind of it, and as soon as the leaves become adult they 

 are so tough and wiry that the stock often pull up the sods, or draw out 

 their own teeth. Statements are current that lambs eating the leaves 

 become paralysed, and that cockatoos after eating the underground corms 

 become stupified as with a narcotic, but the statements lack scientific 

 confirmation and appear to be based on scanty and not altogether trust- 

 worthy evidence. Experimental tests are needed. 



Stock Roads and Waste Places. — The latter should wherever possible 

 be covered with trees, preferably quickly growing and closely planted 

 timber trees. The same applies to the former, except that in many cases 

 closely planted acacias would be preferable. They suppress the weed 

 completely, give shade and protection without overshadowing the road too 

 much, yield useful products, bark and wood, and advi greatly to the 

 beauty of the roads. 



Lawns and Cricket Grounds. — Frequent and close cutting during the 

 growing period, and as long as any flowers appear (May -October) will 

 exhaust the underground corms and prevent the formation of fresh seed. 

 If the ground is trodden and baked hard by trampling in all weathers 

 it must be loosened, a top-dressing of well-rotted stable manure applied, 

 and not rolled too heavily. Romulea does not like light porous ground 

 fairly rich in humus. It prefers ground which is dry in summer time 

 but moist in winter. 



14125. 2 A 



