290 COMMON WEEDS 



ornamental purposes. Some species are valuable 

 forage crops, and useful for reclaiming sandy soils, 

 being usually ploughed in or folded with sheep. Of 

 these the Yellow Lupin (L. luteus L.) and Blue Lupin 

 (L. angustifolius L.) are grown most extensively. The 

 Yellow Lupin has caused much trouble on the Con- 

 tinent, especially in Germany. Cornevin states that in 

 1880 no less than 14,138 out of 240,000 sheep fed 

 upon it, or 5.89 per cent, died after suffering from a 

 complaint termed " Lupinose." Sheep were chiefly 

 affected, because it was to this class of stock that the 

 crop was principally given, but cattle, goats, and horses 

 did not escape. Percival states that Lupins " contain 

 a variable proportion of a bitter alkaloid which makes 

 them unpalatable to horses and cattle, and sheep at 

 first appear to dislike the crop. In addition to the 

 bitter alkaloid, Lupins under certain indefinite con- 

 ditions of soil, manuring, and storage sometimes 

 contain a poisonous compound named Lupinotoxme, 

 which rapidly produces fatal results in sheep when 

 the latter are fed with even moderate amounts of the 

 cut green fodder or hay. Of the various methods to 

 render the Lupin crop perfectly innocuous, heating 

 with steam under pressure of one or two atmospheres 

 has proved the most certain." 



"Java" Beans (Phaseolus lunatus) are the seeds of a 

 foreign bean which have been occasionally imported 

 into this country from the East for feeding purposes, 

 and owing no doubt to their general similarity to white 

 haricots and butter beans have found favour with 

 farmers and others. In the past five years there have 

 been a number of cases of poisoning by so-called 

 "Java" Beans (Fig. 790). In March 1906 the Board 

 of Agriculture and Fisheries published a report of the 

 poisoning of farm animals at eight centres. At two of 



