22 LEGUMINOS£. 
proclaimed for the following districts at the request of the Shire Councils 
concerned :—Bungaree, Creswick, Glenlyon, Heidelberg, Kyneton, Kil- 
more, Lexton, Lilydale, Maldon, Malmsbury, Springfield, and Temple- 
stowe. 
In the same way C. scoparius, Link., the English Broom, has been 
proclaimed for the Shires of Glenlyon and Maldon. ~ 
C. scoparius, Link., is a shrub of two to six feet in height, nearly 
glabrous, but the younger branchlets and leaves silky, with nume- 
rous long, straight and erect, green, wiry branches prominently 
angled. Lower leaves shortly stalked, with three small, obovate 
leaflets ; upper leaves sessile, or shortly stalked, the leaflets often reduced. 
to a single one. Flowers large, bright yellow, solitary or in pairs, on 
slender pedicels, in the axils of the old leaves, forming handsome leafy 
racemes along the upper branches. Petals all broad, the standard broadly 
orbicular, the keel deflected. Pod one and a half to two inches long, flat, 
brown, or black, hairy on the edges, but glabrous on the sides, the seeds: 
attached to a line considerably within the edges of the pod. Though 
termed English Broom, it is a native of Europe, Northern Asia, the 
Canaries and Azores. > The foliage of both species of Broom appears to- 
be feebly poisonous. The plant must be dug out, piled, and burnt before 
seeding. Seedlings can be kept down by hoeing or mowing, but in the 
latter case must be cut close to the ground. It takes some years to exhaust 
all the seed in the soil, but the plant is easily kept down by ordinary culti- 
vation. On waste ground of no value for pasturage, and which cannot be 
ploughed or cultivated with success, a close planting of trees should be 
made, and these will ultimately suppress the shrub. 
"= Gastrolobium, or Poison bush, is one of the few suspected poison 
plants from which an undoubted poisonous principle has been extracted. 
Fortunately, the genus is not native to Victoria, and does not as yet appear 
to have been introduced to the State, although among the most serious 
poison plants of Western Australia, 
Goodia lotifolza, Salisb. (Goodia medicaginea, F. v. M.). It is a 
shrub with yellow flowers, known as the ‘‘clover tree’’ on account of its 
trifoliate leaves. It is native, and is often reported as poisonous, but 
on unsatisfactory evidence. Under ordinary circumstances, it is a useful 
fodder plant on unimproved pastures. 
Indigofera australis, Willd. The true Native Wild Indigo. It is 
often reported to have caused the death of cattle and sheep feeding upon 
it; but no poisonous principle has been extracted, and the genus as a whcle 
1s non-poisonous although some species are supposed to have vermifuge or 
medicinal properties. 
_ (ee Lathyrus sativus, L. Gesse Pea or Indian Vetchling. Although this 
Indian plant has not yet reached Victoria, it has appeared in England 
through the importation of impure seed, and has caused considerable 
damage to stock at times. When eaten repeatedly, it causes in horses a 
peculiar affection of the larynx leading to roaring and ultimate asphyxia- 
tion. This is a special symptom in horses, the general symptom for all 
animals affected by the accumulative poisoning or ‘‘ lathvrism,’’ resulting 
from a continued diet of the plant is a paralysis of the hinder extremities, 
due to fatty degeneration of the muscle fibres. The poison is a volatile 
alkaloid, which is driven off by heat, rendering the pulse innocuous. 
Neglect of this simple precaution has caused the inhabitants of whole 
villages in India to become struck with more or less complete paralysis. 
ey 
