THE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



(v) Suspected plants. 



That the following 1 plants are poisonous, is an opinion very widely held in 

 Australia: 



1. Euphorbia Dnimmondii. 



2. Stachys arvensis. 



There are others, but these will illustrate my point. 



Euphorbia Drummondii, called " Milk Weed " because of its white juice, 

 is a humble, prostrate succulent plant which has a pinkish cast, and which 

 often occurs on river banks or in places with rich soil, and a fair amount of 

 moisture. It is one of the plants which is most frequently reported as 

 having killed sheep. Every year, particularly about March, I get many 

 reports, chiefly from the west, of its devastations. But Mr. E. Stanley, 

 when Government Veterinarian, showed in a paper in the Agricultural 

 Gazette for September, 1896, p. 319, that it is not really poisonous. 



He adduced what appears to be overwhelming evidence against the toxic 

 character of this plant, quoting not merely his own varied experiments, but 

 the observations of many stock-owners. The memoir is far too voluminous 

 to print here, but is well worthy of reference by pastoralists and others. 

 Following are Mr. Stanley's own remarks : 



the weed is not only free from poisonous properties, but it is also a 



wholesome and valuable fodder-plant. Its natural habit is to grow freely after slight 

 moisture, and to form green patches amongst the parched herbage ; it is soft, juicy, and 

 very tempting to hungry sheep; they eat it too freely and fill their stomach to engorge- 

 ment; in this lies the danger, causing indigestion, which is followed by flatulency, and 

 frequently death by suffocation. 



This is the only explanation that can be given to account for its evil reputation. Never- 

 theless, it must be remembered that exactly similar disastrous consequences often follow 

 satisfying the hungry appetite with ravenous feeding. I have known trefoil, lucerne, 

 young thistles, green wheat, and even couch grass, cause fatal indigestion when stock 

 have been indiscreetly fed upon them. 



Drovers coming on such succulent food should permit only a moderate feed, and move 

 them off such patches, until the cravings of hunger are gradually satisfied ; then they 

 may eat such green herbage with impunity. 



Stachys arvensis, the so-called " Stagger Weed," is as widely distributed 

 as the preceding, and the belief as to its poisonous nature is just as prevalent. 

 It was described in the Agricultural Gazette, May, 1916, p. 336. 



Following is a plant occasionally suspected as a poison-plant (there are 

 several of them) out of pure ignorance. I am sorry I have no vernacular 

 name for' these plants, which belong to the group Zygophyllum. I have 

 published a note " Zygophyllum from the Point of View of the Grazier," in 

 the Agricultural Gazette for January, 1901, p. 23, to which I refer my 

 readers. 



They have four or five angled fleshy fruits, and the leaves are yoked or 

 paired together. They usually occur in the drier parts of the State, are 

 often trailing, and found under larger plants. Indeed, in the open they are 

 usually eaten out by sheep, but both here and in South Africa they are often 

 suspected as poison-plants, without any evidence at all, that I can gather; 

 simply, I think, because they are a different green from surrounding plants, 

 and not much is known about them. I believe them, indeed, to be useful 

 fodder plants, and the fact that they are suspected as being poisonous doe& 

 not redound to our credit. 



