46 SOLANACE#. 
RE Nicotiana suaveolens, Lehm. This is a similar but small native 
tobacco. Like the former, it is comparatively resistant to drought, is also 
feebly poisonous, and is apt to become a troublesome weed if allowed to 
spread. 
Pea Datura Stramonium, L. The Thorn Apple. This is a stout erect an- 
nual often over two feet high with forked branches between which or at 
their ends the shortly stalked solitary flowers arise. It bears large almost 
triangular irregularly toothed leaves. The long tubular calyx falls off 
after flowering leaving a more or less prominently toothed rim under the 
capsule, which usually splits into segments during ripening. The corolla 
is large white or purple, and with five short usually yellowish points. 
Capsule globular, prickly, with numerous dark wrinkled seeds, unlike those 
of anv common cultivated plant. 
The Thorn Apple is a native of the Indies originally, now spread over 
the whole globe. It appears to be spreading over Victoria, and contains a 
highly poisonous narcotic alkaloid—-Daturin. Fortunately, the strong 
hitter taste of its leaves usually keeps stock from eating it, but this 
fact and its abundant production of seed aids the plant in spreading 
rapidly. As an annual, it can be kept under on pasture land or waste 
places, by hoeing or pulling up before it has time to seed. If the plants 
are at-all old they should be piled and burnt on the spot to destroy the 
seeds. On arable land it is easily kept under by good cultivation, harrow- 
ing to destroy seedlings as the seeds germinate, or by the ordinary processes 
of rotation farming. If once allowed to seed freely, seedlings may con- 
tinue to appear for several years. 
Proclaimed for the whole State. 
Lycitum horridum, Thunb. The Horrid African Box Thorn. This 
plant is easily recognised by its thorns and red berries. Several species 
of this genus were recommended in Mueller’s Select Plants for introductior 
as hedge plants, and this advice has unfortunately in some cases been fol- 
lowed, without reasonable thought of the dangers of the plant in a thinly 
settled district. | Owing to a clerical error, the plant was originally pro- 
claimed (1904) as Lycium afrum, 1.., the true African Box Thorn, natur- 
alized in Southern’ Europe as a troublesome weed but still scarce-as a natur- 
alized_weed_ in Victoria. None of these plants are better hedge plants 
than Tea Tree, Hawthorn, Pittosporum, Holly, Privet, Pepper, Tree 
Mallow, Tree Lucerne, Gorse, or Acacia. The latter three are nitrogen 
fixers and hence enrich the soil instead of impoverishing it. They will 
grow on equally peor and dry soil, and when kept properly cut and 
trimmed they do not flower or spread to any extent. At the same time, 
they are equally impenetrable, especially if a strand or two of barbed wire 
is run through the centre of the hedge two or three feet from the ground. 
Gorse especially yields better shelter, although liable to burn in dry dis- 
tricts. The Box Thorn, however, will flower and produce its orange-red 
herries on the older wood, even when closely cut. These are eaten br 
birds which, voiding the undigested seeds, carry the plant far and wide. 
If neglected, it may grow to a height of twelve feet and form an almost 
impenetrable jungle. To destroy it, the plants should be cut down hefore 
flowering, the root-stocks grubbed out and the whole piled and burnt. 
Seedlings are easily destroyed by hoeing or mowing. 
It was proclaimed for the Shires of Bacchus Marsh and Melton at the 
request of the shire authorities concerned, and in 1908 the proclamation 
was extended to the whole State, after further requests for proclamation 
had been received. 
