Forage Plants of Australia. 23 



ORDER LEGUMINOS.E. 



SWAINSOXA PROCUMBENS, P. T. M. 



' : Trailing Swainsona." 

 Flora Austr., Vol II, p. 220. 



A GLABROUS or hirsute perennial plant, with procumbent or erect stems of 

 1 foot to 3 feet. The leaves are simply pinnate, with eleven to twenty-one 

 leaflets, varying in form from oblong to lanceolate, in different plants, and 

 from i inch to 1 inch in length. The flowers are large, fragrant, and of a 

 violet colour, and are loosely arranged in a raceme, on stalks that are often 

 1 foot long. The pods are illustrated at figure 1 in the engraving, each one, 

 in a natural state, being about 1 inch in length, acute, distended, very tough, 

 and often incurved. This plant is found principally in the interior of 

 Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and New South "Wales, and on the 

 Darling and Castlerea^h Eivers in the lalter Colony, it is moderately 

 plentiful. It is an excellent forage plant for all herbivora, when partaken 

 of with other herbage. But, like many other leguminous plants, it is liable 

 to " blow " both cattle and sheep when they eat too ravenously upon it in a 

 green state. This is caused during the process of digestion, when volumes 

 of gas are generated, causing an abnormal distention of the stomach, 

 preventing the lungs working ireely, and often killing the animals. Then the 

 plant is put down as a poisonous one. "We might just as well say that 

 lucerne, clover, and some of the medicago's were poisonous, for cattle will 

 "blow" when they eat too ravenously of any of these plants in a' green 

 state. A fact which mi^ht be verified, any day, when sheep or cattle are 

 turned into a clover paddock. It is best to sow the seed in the spring 

 months, after rainfall, if possible ; then the seed will not be long in 

 germinating. 



