910 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
No. 6—THE SUPPOSED POISONOUS PLANTS OF 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
By Frep. Turner, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., &e. 
(Read Monday, 10 January, 1898.) 
In no part of Australia has the subject of supposed poisonous 
plants received more attention from explorers, botanists, plant- 
collectors, pastoralists, and farmers, than in the western portion 
of the continent. Almost ever since domestic animals were 
introduced into Western Australia certain plants have been 
suspected of having poisonous properties, and it appears that 
some of these are suspected not without sufficient reason. As far 
back as the year 1840, Mr. James Drummond, who was an 
excellent botanist, and an- indefatigable collector of West 
Australian plants, wrote to Sir William Hooker, Director of the 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, about a certain species of 
Gastrolobiwm which was regarded as poisonous to stock. Sub- 
sequent to that date Drummond wrote many interesting papers 
on West Australian plants, including those that were suspected 
of having poisonous properties, which were published in Hooker’s 
‘London Journal of Botany.” In the year 1841, Dr. Joseph 
Harris, Colonial Surgeon of Western Australia, Drummond, and 
several other gentlemen experimented with certain leguminous 
plants belonging, or closely allied, to the genus Dillwynia by 
feeding them to stock, and the animals are reported to have died 
shortly afterwards. This was considered conclusive proof that 
the plants contained toxic properties; but at that time no analyses 
appear to have been made to determine the poisonous principle, 
if any, in these plants. During recent years many references, 
notably by the late Mr. G. Bentham in the Flora Austrahensis, 
and by the late Baron Yon Mueller in some of his publications, 
have been made with regard to the supposed poisonous properties 
of certain plants, but nearly the whole subject is ruled by 
empiricism. A few systematic attempts have been made to 
analyse certain suspected poisonous plants and to place the results 
on record ; but as I pointed out many years ago, there are few 
subjects in the domain of science where more original and valu- 
able work could be accomplished. In order to obtain results which 
would be of the greatest possible benefit to stock-owners, the plants 
should be thoroughly investigated, both from a chemical and 
physiological point of view. Some years ago the New South 
Wales Government, at my suggestion, began to analyse the sup- 
posed poisonous plants of the parent Colony. [See Fred. Turner’s 
