4o CoMPoSIT&. 
Inula graveolens, Desf. The Stinkwort, A hairy viscid (clammy or 
sticky) much branched, large herb, woody at the base; the lower leaves 
oblong, lance-shaped, imperfectly toothed ; the upper leaves very narrow, 
and with even margins. This pernicious weed is an immigrant from the 
Mediterranean regions which has spread through this State from South 
Australia, where it has long been a most troublesome weed especially of 
waste or neglected pasture land. The plant is an annual reproducing 
by its abundance of small feathery seeds, which may be carried by wind, 
water, and animals from one district to another. 
It is easily suppressed by cultivation, fallowing and root-crops, but 
such treatment must be carried out over a large area if any permanent 
good is to ensue. The seeds mostly germinate in September or October, 
so that the seedlings are suppressed by a growing leafy crop, but after 
early cuttings for hay, or in the, stubble of grain crops, later seedlings 
spring up and flourish in abundance. 
Hedges aid in preventing the re-entry of seed into cleaned fields. 
Waste places infested by the weed should be planted with trees, preferably 
pines and other conifers. The plant is a sun-lover and will not grow in 
dense shade. On the borders of fields, &c., it needs to be kept closely 
cut, or hand-pulled before flowering, and usually this is easiest after rain. 
Pulled or cut plants will ripen their seed on the ground, unless rapidly 
dried and burnt with the aid of brush-wood, or piled in pits and covered 
with quicklime. Seeds do not appear to retain their vitality for longer 
than two or three years in the soil, and mostly not for more than a vear, 
but sufficient remain to enable this weed to spring up season after season 
and suppress quite strong pasture plants if they are shorter than it is 1tself. 
The plant has less value for green manuring than-any of the plants 
ordinarily grown for that purpose, even when ploughed under before 
seeding. It is not only useless for fodder but actually injurious. Cows 
rarely touch it, but sheep will eat the young shoots and aid in keeping 
it down somewhat if other food is scanty. The plant is apt to give the 
flesh an unpleasant flavour, and milk and butter are still more readily 
and rapidly affected. "Large quantities, particularly if in flower when 
eaten, may block the digestive canal, or even produce poisonous effects, 
especially on breeding ewes. An extract from the plant given frequently 
in large doses produces paralysis, mainly of the hind limbs. The plant 
appears to be. more injurious when in flower than when young. 
The dried plant has been used for curing hams and bacons, and the 
extract has a certain medicinal value, but not sufficient to justify its culti- 
vation or place it in any other character but that of a pernicious and even 
dangerous weed. 
Proclaimed for the whole State. 
An allied plant, the Elecampane (/mula Helenium, L.), also has a 
certain medicinal value but it is a possible source of future trouble, and 
being a coarse perennial would be even more difficult to suppress when once 
established. 
Lactuca saligna, L. The Willow Lettuce. A native of Europe, Asia 
and Africa. It is an annual or biennial, not hitherto plentiful or of any 
great importance. The same applies to the Prickly Lettuce (Z. scariola, 
L.). They can be distinguished from the Sow Thistle by their stalked 
pappus, and from Hawkweed by the flattened seeds. 
Madia sativa, Mol. The Pitch Weed. A native of America. This 
erect annual with opposite or alternate narrow pointed leaves, and small 
yellow heads of flowers, is obnoxious on account of its sticky hairs, and 
