1 Dec., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 437 
Botany. 
PLANTS REPUTED POISONOUS TO STOCK. 
By F. MANSON BAILEY, F.L.5., 
Colonial Botanist. 
RED-HEAD, OR MILKY COTTON-BUSH (ASCLEPIAS CURASSA VICA, Linn.). 
A West Inptan soft-wooded small shrub of 2 to 5 feet high, which has become 
naturalised, and overrun many parts of Queensland. The leaves are narrow, 
and in appearance something like those of the Oleander, but are of a softer 
nature. The flowers, which are in loose bunches, are of an orange-red and 
yellow colour. Sced-pods (follicles) smooth, 4 or 5 inches long, tapering much 
from the base to the point, and closely packed with long seeds which have a 
tuft of silky hairs at one end. It is a native of the West Indies, but has 
overrun many tropical and semi-tropical regions. 
I have often received specimens of this plant, with a report that it was 
suspected of causing injury to stock, and there is every reason to believe 
that it would do so, if eaten in quantity, belonging as it does toa family 
(Asclepiadez) which contains many plants known to possess poisonous prin- 
ciples; an acrid milk, which pervades all their parts, being eminently emetic and 
purgative. Although rather plentiful in many localities, I consider it hardly 
likely that stock would touch it, except in times of drought, when, as is well 
known, they browse upon almost any green plant they meet with. 
According to Don, the juice of A. cuwrassavica, made into a syrup, 1s said 
to be a powerful anthelmintic. In the West Indies it is given to children for 
that purpose, froma tea to a table spoonful. The juice and pounded plant are 
reputed to have the power of staunching blood. The root dried, and reduced to 
powder, is frequently used by the negroes as an emetic, and hence its name of 
“Wild Ipecacuanha.” Dymock says that Dr. Guimaraes described the 
physiological action of A. cwrassavica. We found it to act directly upon the 
organic muscular system, and especially upon the heart and blood vessels, 
causing great constriction of the latter and distension of the larger arteries. 
Secondarily, it occasioned great dyspnea (difficulty of breathing), vomiting, 
and diarrhoea. 
In the October (1897) number of the Kew Bulletin an account of this 
plant as an insectifuge is given. It states that it grows everywhere, as a weed, 
about the Isthmus of Tehauntepec (Southern Mexico), and is used by ie 
Indians there to keep away vermin, especially fleas. They make a broom of it, 
and sweep the floors and walls of their huts, and find that they are not troubled 
with fleas for a considerable time afterwards. They have also tried brushing 
dogs with it when their coats are full of vermin, and it appears to answer the 
same purpose with them. The Indian name of the plant is “ Chilpati.” 
