13 
pastures, as it provides good feed in late winter and early spring ere 
many other useful forage herbs begin to put forth much new growth. 
Sir Thomas Mitchell, exploring in the interior, inter alia, wrote of 
this plant, which he called “ Australian shamrock”; “ The perfume 
of this herb, its freshness and flavour, induced me to try it as a 
vegetable, and we found it to be delicious, tender as spinach, and to 
preserve a very green colour, when boiled.” This opinion has since 
been confirmed by other persons who have used it in a similar way. 
The perfume of this plant is due to the presence of the chemical 
principle coumarine, which pervades all parts of the plant. 
Darling clover is one of the many indigenous herbs that would 
repay systematic cultivation in the interior, where exotic clovers 
would not succeed, owing to the aridity and great heat in summer. 
If cut when in flower, and properly cured, it makes good hay, and 
would probably pay to be grown for ensilage. 
Crowfoot.—T'wo important herbs are called “crowfoot,” viz., 
Erodium cygnorum and Geranium dissectum, The former is an 
annual or biennial plant, with stems usually lying flat upon the 
ground, and three feet or more long. It has large, deeply-lobed 
of its sharp-pointed seed lobes 1 
firmly to The wool, but sometimes penetrate the skin of the 
fall of rain put forth stems and leaves in abundance. A 
stock are partial to this plant, which is considered nutritious. Sheep 
are very fond of the carrot-like roots, and often scrape away the 
soil with their hoofs in order to get at them. At one time the 
rticle of food for the aborigines, who 
lant with spreading stems growing some 
often ane a pe a of herbage. It occurs over large 
tracts of both good and inferior country In the interior, and in many 
places is fairly plentiful. Its rather thick, fleshy, long roots, which 
at one time formed an article of food for the aborigines, are said to 
