575 



what they had seen or heard. It" an animal is found to show 

 symptoms like those produced by poison-plants, it is desirable to 

 ascertain, if possible, that it had been seen to eat a certain plant, or 

 that portions of it had been found in its stomach after death. 

 Failing this, the beast's illness might as reasonably be supposed to 

 have been due to some other cause. A knowledge of the various 

 poison-plants would enable anyone to decide, from their presence or 

 absence in the neighborhood, whether the animal's sickness 

 might be put down to one of those plants or not ; and a knowledge 

 of the way in which they affect animals would be equally useful. 

 So many plants have been suspected of poisoning stock that simple 

 facts, correctly stated, arc much needed for fixing their character 

 as injurious, or clearing them of suspicion ; and it is to be hoped 

 that those having the opportunity will communicate such definite 

 facts to the Bureau of Agriculture, in order that they may be 

 utilised and placed on record. It \vill be understood, from what 

 has been said, that the following notes, imperfect and fragmentary 

 as they are, are not put forward as a complete account of the 

 poison-plants, but rather that they are meant as a step towards an 

 enquiry into the subject, with a view to elucidating their nature 

 and properties. Before discovering antidotes, or devising means 

 for the prevention of poisoning of stock, or putting the poisons to 

 useful purposes, it is necessary first of all to gather all the informa- 

 tion possible about the plants, and to follow that up with systematic 

 observation and experiment on the action of the poisons, the effect 

 of antidotes, and other means of treatment. Notes of the symptoms 

 of poisoning, the order of their incidence, and the post-mortem 

 appearances, may be made by those under whose observation the 

 occurrence may have happened ; and if these are written down on 

 the spot, and forwarded with specimens of the plant found to have 

 caused the accident, our knowledge of the poisons and their effects 

 may be materially advanced. 



The lirst requirement in discussing any question is to have a 

 clear understanding about the identity of the objects spoken of. 

 In the case of a plant it is necessary to know its name, and if con- 

 fusion is to be avoided that name must be one having a strictly 

 defined application and be generally adopted by the world at large. 

 Such a name is Oxylobium pan'iflonini, definitely associated with a 

 species of plant having certain botanical characters, but known to 

 colonists under a number of different English names, as box, nar- 

 row-leaf, sandplain. In order to be sure of the identity of a plant 

 called by any of these names it is necessary to refer to its scientific 

 description as given in an authoritative work on the subject ; and 

 while a resident of one part of the colony may call it box, another 

 in a different district narrow-leaf, and a third may pronounce it 

 sandplain, the botanist has one name for the three, namely, Oxylo- 

 bium parrifiornm. While it is desirable to know a plant by a well- 

 defined name, applicable to that species alone, it is, on the other 



