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aeasons eaten by slieep, it is quite eaten out in the Murray 

 Eiver scrubs, and I never knew any ill-effects produced by it. 

 The other Zygoplryllums are seldom or never eaten by sheep. 



Goodia medicaginea. — This handsome shrub will grow to four 

 or five feet high, or even higher, and retains its foliage 

 throughout the year, having a preference for limestone soils, 

 and flowers during vSeptember and October ; produces an abun- 

 dance of seeds in short pods. Horses, cattle, and sheep devour 

 it greedily, but of late years I have seldom seen it. The speci- 

 men was gathered near the Duck Ponds, Port Lincoln, inside a 

 fenced-off piece of road, otherwise, no doubt, it too would have 

 disappeared by being eaten out. Some allied species are 

 poisonous, but I have never known injurious results from eating 

 this one. Baron von Mueller, in the letter above-mentioned, 

 also states that, in Gippsland, Goodia latifolia has been proved 

 to have poisoned cattle. It would be interesting to know for 

 certain whether the poison exists in the seeds or leaves. It 

 often happens that a good deal of obscurity exists about poi- 

 sonous plants and their effects, as they seem very uncertain. A 

 friend of mine lately fed some old ewes on the undoubtedly 

 poisonous Eupliorhia Drummondi, but could not kill them, al- 

 though he often loses an odd sheep or two from poison, and 

 no other known poisonous plant exists on his property. 1 am 

 inclined to believe that many leguminous plants reputed to be 

 poisonous are not really so, but that an excess of either foliage 

 or seeds eaten by a hungry animal throws off such an abundance 

 of gases that "hoove," which is nothing more than an exces- 

 sive distension of the stomach pressing against the diaphragm, 

 preventing the lungs from working, and the animal is really 

 strangled to death. To this cause I attribute all the deaths 

 (and they are very numerous) caused by Lotus australis var. 

 Behrii; really an excellent fodder plant, akin to the lucernes, 

 but when seeding, and especially after rain, if hungry sheep are 

 allowed to feed greedily upon it they die by hundreds, while 

 sheep in confinement and fed solely on it do not die but 

 actually thrive, as was proved some years since in Adelaide. 



Kocliia afliylla. — The Cotton Bush, so well-known and of such 

 vast importance to herds and flocks in all our dry and very arid 

 country. It belongs to the real saltbush order, and not like 

 the two last described, which are only popularly considered so. 

 It derives its popular name from the white cotton-like balls, 

 the effects of a gall insect, very conspicuous indeed on a plant 

 which so well deserves its scientific name of aphyUa (without 

 leaves), or sometimes present as mere scales. The plant usually 

 presents the appearance of a round heap of reticulated green 

 wiry twigs. It is most common on red clays and loams, espe- 



