96 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
own accord. In the previous cases, too, at William’s River, 
death did not ensue so quickly; and the goat here did not 
call out, as the creatures usually do when thus poisoned. 
'The Blackadder Creek plant, with which we made the experi- 
ments at Guildford, has leaves of a deeper green colour, and 
smaller size, and is, altogether, a less plant, though the 
two are precisely alike in stipules, flowers and seed- 
vessels, ; 
The report of the committee, after instituting these experi- 
ments declares that all doubt is removed as to the cause of the 
death of so many of our cattle, sheep and goats. The Colo- 
nial Surgeon, Mr. Harris, examined the bodies of the por 
soned animals, and drew up a statement of the morbid ap- 
pearances which they presented; his report was printed in 
the Western Australian Journal, for May 22nd, which I send 
you. 
From what I have heard of the disease called Guttau, Or 
Guttar, at Sydney, I have no doubt it is caused by some 
plant of this family; and though many different opinions 
have been given, the difficulty which attends the analyzing of 
vegetable poisons, makes it a hard matter to prove the point 
with such incontrovertible certainty, as to remove all doubt 
from the minds of persons who are unwilling to credit the 
existence of poisonous plants in this colony. 
Three valuable dogs were lost by eating the entrails of the 
sheep on which we had experimented. I have been informed, 
that the same consequence always follows, when animals eat 
those sheep which die of the Guttau. And though Mr 
Preiss asserts that there are no noxious vegetables, natives of 
New Holland, I have myself gathered two genuine species of 
Euphorbia, a genus whose poisonous properties are universally 
allowed. 
Mr. Huon, a gentleman who lately imported horses from 
Port Philip, allowed them to feed on the plant with which I 
made equally convincing experiments at William's River, 
(the other variety or species of the Blackadder Creek plant); 
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