CHAPTER VIII. 



THE POISON-PLANTS OF WESTKRX AUSTRALIA. 



il.y DR. ALKX. MORRISON, BOTANIST, BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE.) 



The colony of Western Australia has been known from its 

 earliest days, and even from a time prior to actual settlement, to 

 include in its flora a number of plants having properties dangerous 

 to animal life. Some of these grow in such quantity, and over so 

 large an area of the colony, as to have materially hindered the 

 progress of settlement on its soil, by making the rearing of stock 

 impracticable. The recent impulse towards agricultural settlement 

 has brought the subject of poison-plants into greater prominence 

 than before, and settlers have agitated for assistance in dealing 

 with the pest. The loss sustained by the colony through the 

 poisons, and the detriment they cause to its progress, are of a 

 magnitude not easily realised. The Hon. C. H. Piesse, M.L.C., in 

 speaking of his own personal experience of their effects, has stated 

 that on one occasion he had seen a Hock of 900 sheep in a fresh- 

 burnt patch of York Road poison, and that half an hour afterwards 

 522 were found poisoned. He also expressed his opinion that the 

 south-western portion of the colony would carry 10,000 sheep 

 where it now carries only 100, were it not for these plants. 



The Bureau of Agriculture, recognising the necessity for 

 Governmental action in the matter, made the following statement 

 in its Second Annual Report, for the year ending June 3oth, 1895 

 ('Journal of the Bureau of Agriculture, 6th August, 1895, vol. ii., p. 514) : 

 " The Bureau is of opinion that the poison question is one of the 

 greatest importance, and that every effort should be made to 

 ascertain the nature of the alkaloids in those plants, which infest so 

 large an area of the colony, with a view to discovering whether 

 there are any simple, cheap, and effective antidotes, and whether 

 the alkaloids have any commercial value. The investigation should 

 be botanical, chemical, and veterinary, and the Bureau proposes, if 

 funds are forthcoming, to undertake the botanical and veterinary 

 branches of the investigation." 



In the year 1892 Mr. Bernard H. Woodward, curator of the 

 Perth Museum, had been authorised to collect information from 

 settlers and others regarding the poison plants of the colony, and he 

 accordingly issued circulars, of which a copy is given below, request- 

 ing information on the subject. 



11 1 am authorised by the honorable the Colonial Secretary to 

 make a report upon the poison plants of this colony. To this end I 



