102 . THE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



University, United States of America, on " Delayed germination of Cockle- 

 burr and other paired seeds." (Proceedings 16th Annual Meeting for 

 Society for Promotion of Agricultural Science, Springfield, August, 1895). 



The Cockle-burr in Queensland. This weed has been established in 

 Queensland for a number of years, and there is no doubt that it is working 

 its way south from that State. In this way we obtained Paddy's Lucerne, 

 which, year by year, moves onward into our territory. It is commonly 

 known in South Queensland as " Noogoora-burr," covering (in 1879) 110 

 less than 500 acres on the Noogoora Estate, near Brisbane, alone. It is a 

 well-recognised pest in the northern State. 



Ex-Senator Walker writes : " I may inform you that this burr came to 

 Noogoora much earlier than 1890. -The Noogoora property at one time 

 belonged to a Mr. Bauer, a cotton planter, and the burr is supposed to have * 

 come from either Mauritius or Natal with some imports. It grows pro- 

 lifically on the banks of the Brisbane River, and I think I can say pretty 

 confidently it came as far back as 1871. I had occasion to visit "Noogoora 

 in 1871. The burr was not then the nuisance it afterwards became, but 

 it got its name from having broken out at Noogoora. Doubtless you can 

 make further inquiries from Queensland, if you wish to ascertain the exact 

 date at which it became troublesome. Cattle are rather fond of it when the 

 shrub is young; when older it is dangerous. I am not sure it was not intro- 

 duced with the cotton seed." (It is supposed to have been so introduced 

 in that way during the early sixties.) 



7s Cockle burr poisonous? I alluded to this matter in my article on the 

 Bathurst burr, in the Agricultural Gazette for July, 1896, page 445, and 

 expressed doubt as to its poisonous nature. Months before my article could 

 have reached him, Professor J. C. Arthur, of Purdue University, U.S.A., 

 wrote to me : ,"I am preparing an account of what we know as Cockle-burrs 

 (Xanthium canaden^e, strumarium, and spinosum) for the farmers of this 

 State. I learn that in Australia these plants, when young, are reputed to be 

 poisonous. They do not have such a reputation in this country, and I wish 

 to obtain all information regarding the matter I can." I sent Prof. Arthur 

 a copy of Dr. Joseph Bancroft's paper and of my own. He replied : " I am 

 unable to entirely account for Dr. Bancroft's results, but I am convinced 

 that whatever may be true of decoctions of the plant, Xanthium is not 

 poisonous in any form in which domestic animals will eat it in the field. I 

 have recently been able to trace the supposed poisonous effects of Xanthium 

 in one district in this State to an outbreak of anthrax." 



A. Zander (Pharm. J. Russl., 1881, quoted by Sohn) has examined the 

 seeds of the Cockle-burr, and finds in them a poisonous glucoside, to which 

 he gives the name of Xanthostrumarin. It is most probable that this poi- 

 sonous principle is present in minute quantity, and I agree with Prof. 

 Arthur that the form in which cattle eat the plant is innocuous. Xantho- 

 strumarin develops a succinic odour on warming, and is soluble in alcohol 

 and ether. For its behaviour with reagents, I must refer my readers to 

 Sohn's Dictionary of the Active Principles of Plants. 



The late Dr. J. Lauterer, in Proc. Roy. Soc., Q., xviii, 60, says: "Pigs 

 die after eating the young plants." 



Dr. J. B. Cleland, in 3rd Rep. N.S.W. Bureau, Micro'biol., collects the data 

 as follows, and it is obvious that here we have another plant which is worthy 

 of the attention of a Stock Institute. 



