PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 587 
numerous and valuable are to be found in the natural order 
Chenopodiacee, numbering as they do for all Australia about one 
hundred and twelve species, arranged under fifteen genera, eight 
of which are endemic. Some are found on the littoral sands, 
whilst others extend to the arid plains of the interior, and 
are remarkable for their drought-enduring qualities. There 
are also many other trees, shrubs, and herbs, represented in other 
natural orders, which are largely used as fodder, especially so 
during long droughts; though there is still much doubt to be 
cleared up with respect to the value of many of them. Even in 
the same district, some persons will assert that a particular species 
of plant is poisonous, while the testimony of others, which is 
equally reliable, will assert that it makes capital feed. There 
are, perhaps, no more conflicting statements made than with regard 
to the genus Lvemophila, and the allied one ALZyoporum. Whilst I 
must admit that so very little is known of the physiological 
properties of the order AZyoporinee, still I cannot close my eyes 
to the fact that both cattle and sheep, kept in country where 
these shrubs are plentiful, eat them with avidity, and thrive on 
them, without any ill effects. Some persons assert that these 
Myoporinous plants develop their poisonous properties when in 
fruit, but whoever has studied the habits of the birds of Central 
Australia will assure you that someof them greatly depend upon the 
fruits of these plants for sustenance ; which in fact, in some seasons 
are their principal food supply. Moreover, the aboriginals in the 
early days, before they tasted the sweets of civilisation, used to 
eat the fruits of several AZyoporinous plants. There is no doubt 
that when cattle and sheep are taken from one district to another, 
where the natural herbage is somewhat dissimilar, it must have, 
for a time at least, some effect upon their systems, especially when 
they are taken from rolling-downs of grass to country where 
shrubs and herbs predominate. And this brings to mind a ques- 
tion which I think has not received the attention of stock-owners 
that its importance justifies, viz., the mechanical action that 
hard-foliaged shrubs have upon the larynx of both cattle and 
sheep which are not used to eating them. This irritation of the 
larynx not only brings on laryngitis, but often extends to and 
brings on inflammation of the intestines. Further, when hungry 
sheep have partaken too freely of some leguminous plants, 
especially when in seed, they have died. But this is caused 
during the process of digestion, when great volunes of gas 
are formed, which cause an abnormal distention of the stomach, 
thus preventing the lungs working freely, and of course 
strangling the animals. On this account many leguminous plants 
are called poisonous which are not really so. Still, these causes 
could not account for all the sheep that die somewhat mysteriously. 
I use the word ‘“‘ mysteriously” advisedly, for many plants have 
been sent to me as poisonous which, on examination, have proved 
