54 1 



vegetation. Iv-Mihnn received this plant from Western Australia 

 in Dnnnii mil's s >,c >;id collection, but regarded it at this early date 

 as a prob.ible introduction. The late Baron von Mueller, who met 

 with the phrit sojn at'ter reaching South Australia, always con- 

 sidered it an introduction, and, although he includes it in his 

 " Census," made a note to this effect. " I think I am in 

 a position to set the still existing doubt at rest, and prove 

 its introduction ; which, moreover, was a deliberate one, for 

 the purpose of cultivating the plant as a culinary vegetable 

 under the n ime of ' Cape spinach.' My informant is Mr. D. 

 Wansborough, who landed at Premantle in 1831. He, with his 

 wife, came from England under contract with Mr. William 

 Tanner. On their way out the ship put in at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, where Mr. Tanner obtained the seed. Eighteen months 

 after arrival in Western Australia Mr. Wansborough entered the 

 services of Mr. j. Phillips as gardener, and in this occupation 

 sowed a bed with the seed of this ' Cape spinach ' at Mr. Phillips's 

 place on the Canning river in 1833. The seed was obtained from 

 Mr. Tanner, and this is the first authenticated instance of the plant 

 having been cultivated ; but it is probable that it was sown the 

 year before, and certainly in the following year. As, however, the 

 plant did not prove a very palatable spinach, and soon became a 

 troublesome weed, causing constant annoyance to the workmen, 

 on account of its spinous seeds (the greater part of the rural w r ork 

 having to be done by hand in those days), it received the name of 

 4 Tanner's curse ' throughout the settlement." 



Phylolacca octandm (Ink plant). Indigenous to America. A 

 tall, much-branching herbaceous plant, growing from four to ten feet 

 high ; leaves large, ovate ; Mowers small, greenish ; fruit very juicy, 

 blackish-purple. A prolific seeder. In damp soil this plant rapidly 

 spreads, mainly through the agency of birds, who greedily eat the 

 berries. Besides this, a closely allied plant, P. decandra is recorded 

 as having been introduced into Queensland. 



Medicago dcnlicnlalci (Burr medick ; toothed medick ; burr 

 clover ; creeping burr). Indigenous to Europe, West Asia, and North 

 Africa. An annual with spreading stems, semi erect or trailing on 

 the ground. In humid costal regions I have seen the stems reaching 

 a length of over three feet, and in New Zealand I have known the 

 plant to be biennial. Leaves, cloverlike, dark green, and sometimes 

 marked with small dark brown spots ; flowers yellow, very small, in 

 little beads on stalks ; pods spirally twisted and covered with 

 hooked or curved prickles. This weed is mainly objectionable on 

 account of the burred pods it produces in great profusion, and which 

 deteriorate the value of wool to an enormous extent when attached 

 to it. As a fodder plant it is only of mediocre value, and as it 

 generally dies down in the dry season and leaves bare patches 

 in the places it has been growing on, it is of little service, but ojbec- 

 tionable because it suppresses better pasture plants. 



