42 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jury, 1899. 
stems, from 1 to 2 feet high; flowers deep red or crimson; seements 6 about 3 
lines long ; stamens 3, shorter or longer than the segments ; anther much shorter 
than the filaments. Capsule + to near 3 inch broad, 3 or sometimes 2 celled. 
Seeds flat. 
The last person from whom I have received specimens of this plant, as au 
suspected poison, is Mr. R. Sturt, secretary of the Cairns Chamber of 
Commerce. He says: ‘The plant has proved itself very injurious to horses. It 
grows about the ridges on the Mulgrave ; and a horse that was fed with it, for 
experimental purposes, died. In mild cases the horses get griped, and it has 
only recently been traced to this plant.” Plants of the order are not known to 
possess what might: be termed poisonous properties; they are known, however, 
to be intensely bitter. 
On the islands of Moreton Bay one species —viz., H. tenuifolium, A. Cunn. 
—is in places abundant. Can the loss of stock in that locality, of which we hear 
sometimes, be traced to this plant ? 
Sixty years ago Mr. James Drummond, then a botanical collector at 
Fremantle, Swan River, in “ Botanical Information” published in Hook. Journ. 
of Bot. ii. 355, says that the roots of several species of Lemodorum furnish one of 
the principal vegetable foods of the natives of that colony. He remarks further, 
also, that the roots of all the species are mild and nutritious when roasted, but 
acrid when raw. 
A rich dye prevails in the root-stock of all the species. 
Popular Botany. 
OUR BOTANIC GARDENS. 
No. 10. 
By PHILIP MAC MAHON, 
Curator. 
How do you prune roses? is a question often asked by visitors to our 
Gardens; and as the rose is such a universal favourite, and the time for dealing 
with it in pruning, propagating, and other directions, is now at hand, we may haye 
a little chat as to its varieties, propagation, culture, pruning, &e. 
The rose is a comparatively newcomer into the domain of Flora in Great 
Britain. The Moss Rose was known in England oyer 809 years ago ; and about 3 
centuries ago the Provence Rose, which you, who have lived in England, remember 
as the old cabbage rose which bloomed so freely in the homely cottage gardens, was 
introduced to Great Britain. 
The rose mentioned in the beautiful Song of Solomon, and again in the 
Isaiah Xxxy. i., was not what we call the rose, but a bulbous plant, the 
Narcissus tazetta; but all over the East the rose is now cultivated extensively, 
not only for its beauty, but for the costly perfume, attar of roses. There are in 
the East many wild species of the real rose, and in Indian and Zend poetry the 
word frequently occurs. What is known as the Rose of Jericho is, however, not 
a rose, but a plant belonging to the same natural family as the cabbage, rejoicing 
in the formidable name of Anastatica hierochuntica and which possesses the 
remarkable property of curling up in a ball when it becomes very dry; in this 
condition being blown about by the wind, and reviving when it comes to water, 
or when sufficient rain falls to’supply its needs. You may remember having — 
numbers of this plant offered to you for sale as you passed through Port Said 
on your journeys to or from Europe, 
