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by over driving as to lose their discriminative instinct, in the hurry 

 of impetuous hunger, that poisoning follows its presence in their 

 grazing-grounds. The nature of the locahty where it grew at the 

 ' Tarka ' closely resembled that at Somerset ; the flats above the bed 

 of the Swart-kie, at the former, as those of the Fish River at the latter 

 place, produced it in abundance. The plant was always regarded as 

 an enemy ; but I never saw it eaten by cattle except in the instance 

 which I have detailed. It is not possible for me to state ihe precise 

 time in which, in any one individual, death followed from eating it. I 

 think, liowever, I may venture to offer from three to nine hours as the 

 most probable time. Long before the heat of day had operated on 

 the dead, the dilated eyes and frothy nostrils and mouths of the poi- 

 soned cattle were commented upon, whilst we scrambled over them at 

 morning parade, as indicative of a more suffering death than such 

 faithful companions of our toils deserved. Symptoms of gastritis were 

 marked by their previous moanings. Further than this, however, it is not 

 in my power to speak with certainty. I am indebted to the kindness 

 of Professor Balfour for the probable botanical name of the plant. A 

 rough sketch, taken at the ' Tarka,' has been identified as that of 

 Vieusseuxia tripetaloides, one of the Iridaceae, an order numerously 

 represented in Southern Africa. It only remains for me to state that, 

 from the solidity of the soil, it is next to impossible that any of the 

 roots could have been got up. Poisoning was therefore due to the 

 flowers, stem, and leaves. I have also every reason to believe that 

 every one of the oxen which ate the plant died." 



Dr. Balfour stated that he had determined the plant, as far as pos- 

 sible, from the drawing by Mr. Dalyell, and that he considered it to 

 be the Vieusseuxia tripetaloides, DC, Iris tripetala of Thunberg, and 

 Moraea tripetala ofKer. He also stated that several of the Cape Irida- 

 ceae seemed to be poisonous, and referred especially to Homeria 

 collina, as noticed in Dr. Pappe's ' Prodromus of the Cape Medical 

 Flora.' " I introduce this plant," says Dr. Pappe " (which is known 

 to almost every child in the colony as the Cape-tulip), not for its the- 

 rapeutical use, but for its noxious properties. The poisonous quality 

 of its rhizomes appears to have been known to some extent years ago, 

 but judging from the rapidity with which death ensued in a recent 

 case, when they had been eaten by mistake, it must be of a very poi- 

 sonous kind. To Dr. Lang, Police Surgeon of Cape Town, I am 

 indebted for the particulars of a most melancholy case of poisoning 

 caused by this plant. A Malay woman, somewhat advanced in years, 

 with her three grandchildren, respectively of the ages of 1.2, 8, an I fi, 



