FORAGE PLANTS. 
B. NON-GRASSES, 
INCLUDING 
meets INJURIOUS TO STOCK.* 
Owince to the severity of the droughts, and, in some districts, the 
competition of rabbits and other vermin, cattle and sheep in 
Australia have at times to endeavour to preserve existence by 
devouring any vegetable matter whatsoever. The plants eaten 
by stock therefore embrace a very large number of species, but 
I have confined myself in the following pages to references to the 
plants usually eaten by them, either because they are abundant, or 
readily withstand the drought, or because stock are very partial to 
browsing upon them. The poisonous plants, of course, come 
under a different category. If I were to record the names of all 
suspected poisonous plants the list would be a very long one. The 
observations of bushmen as to the poisonous nature of certain 
plants are not always to be relied ont and the enquiry, even to a 
scientific man, is attended with much difficulty. In Plants 
Injurtous to Stock (Bailey and Gordon), Government Printer, 
Brisbane, will be found references to a number of suspected 
plants, but in regard to many, the verdict of ‘“‘ not proven”’ must 
be entered. 
* Nearly the whole of this section formed the subject of a Paper read by the Author 
before the Royal Society of N.S.W., 6th June, 1888. 
+ The allegation is from time to time made in the newspapers that, sometimes through 
ignorance, and sometimes as a matter of expediency, squatters report that their sheep or 
cattle have fallen victims to poison-weeds, when in reality they have perished from disease, 
Whatever the extent of this mis-representation may be, it is an undoubted fact that, during 
the last few years, many instances of alleged poisoning by weeds having been enquired into 
on the spot by a competent veterinarian, have been proved to have been caused by disease. 
I 
