58 IriDEz. 
varieties, the local form appearing to be the var. miniata, which is classed 
as a separate species in Baker’s Iridew. The plant often bears bulbils in 
the axils of its lower leaves, which aid in its spread. It has long been known 
as poisonous to stock in South Africa, and this has been confirmed by 
McAlpine and Farmer for Victorian conditions. No alkaloid has been 
extracted, but many of the Irides contain, especially in the bulbs, bubils 
or rhizomes substances resembling ethereal oils, which produce local or 
general inflammation of the mucous membrane of the intestine and stomach 
when taken in any quantity. The chief danger is when stock are suddenly 
transferred to new districts where the plant is growing. If they recover , 
after eating it they usually avoid the plant in future, but this is of course 
no reason for incurring any such risk. The plant is easily recognised 
by its long flat sword-shaped leaves, often with bulbils, and its large ex- 
panded flowers, red to orange in colour, and with three (rarely two) stamens 
slightly united at their bases. The fruit is a dry dehiscent capsule, with 
numerous seed. Local patches should be dug up before flowering, the 
round ‘‘ bulbs ’’ with fibrous outer coats collected and burnt with the aid of 
brushwood, or destroyed in heaps with quicklime. In the former case the 
ash can be reapplied to the land with farmyard manure, or in the latter 
case the lime heaps directly applied after a time. Land much infested 
by the weed can only be successfully cleaned by two or three years’ culti- 
vation, as much ploughing and harrowing being given as can be afforded. 
The great thing with all bulbous plants is to disturb and expose them as 
much as possible while the land is being prepared for a crop, and to pre- 
vent flowering and food storage while the crop is growing. The crop 
itself then continues the suppression, and after harvesting care should be 
taken not to leave the land too long untilled if there is any danger of the 
pest developing new leaves and flowers. 
Symptoms.—F latulent colic followed by progressive paralysis. Mor- 
tality 20 to 50 per cent. in bad cases. = 
Treatment.—Hypodermic injections of }-grain doses of physostigmine, 
and calcium chloride in half-ounce doses have been found useful. 
Proclaimed for the whole State. 
Romulea (Trichonema) cruciata, Ker.-Gawl. The Guildford or Onion 
Grass. This South African plant was called FR. Bulbocodium 
{a native of the Mediterranean regions and Scilly Islands) by 
Baron F. von Mueller, and has been known as R. rosea, Eckl. (a native 
of South Africa), in New South Wales and Tasmania, but is easily dis- 
tinguished from these species by its short style not projecting beyond the 
stamens, a character constant in several hundred flowers examined. 2. 
longifolia, of Baker, is a synonym, and the Australian R. cructata seems 
to have diverged sufficiently from the type form of RP. rosea to be recognised 
as a distinct species.* Each shoot usually bears one or two flowers, but 
sometimes a single corm develops a cluster of shoots, and the plant then 
appears to be many flowered. The plant was abundant in the neighbour- 
hood of the Botanical Gardens 40 or 50 years ago, but it has now taken 
possession of entire paddocks, roadsides and waste places, and like manv 
bulbous plants it is difficult to eradicate. 
Its pinkish purple flowers look very pretty among its green grass-like 
leaves in spring, as they open_when the sun shines on them and close at 
night or in cold weather. The leaves appear in April or May, the 
*Béguinot reduces our plant to a variety of R. rosea (var. parviflora), and revives the name R. 
eructata for Jacquin’s plant. As the relati ip of R. Bulbocodium, R.rosea and R. longtfolia is still in 
doubt, the name R#. cruciata, Ker.-Gawl., under which our plant was proclaimed, had better be retained, 
until finality is reached in this matter. 
