FALSE ACACIA.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1391, 18 March 1912, Page 8

FALSE ACACIA.

DOES IT INJURE STOCK? The Government Analyst, Mr. I!. C. , Aston, writes as follows in the Journal of the Department of Agriculture-.— "Thveo foals having recently died at Iliiwke's Bay in a pa:Moel; in which trees of Itobinia (locust tree or false ac.icia) weie go'ving, and the postmortem examination disclosing the fact that the leaves of the tree had been eaten, suspicion was nrouseil that this plant was the ca.ise uf the mortality. Uobiniu belongs to the huge family Legmninosac, or the pod- (legume-)bearing pluiits, to which also belong so many valuable as, well as poisonous plants. That Tiobinianiay he regarded i:a an element of danger in proximity to stock may bo inferred from the facts that 'Power found a poisonous l'.iicleoproteid (Robin) and evidences of one or more alkaloids in the bark; that three cases cf poisoning of children by tho root have I'-ecn recorded, as well as of thirty-two boys from chewing the inner bark of the tree. The symptoms in the mildest cases were vomiting ami Hushed faces, dryness of the throat and mouth, and dilated pupils. In the. severest cases, to these were, added epigastric pain, extremely feeble intermittent heartaction, and stupor. "As liobinia pseudo-acacia, is leing extensively grown in tho Xorth Island, it is extremely desirable to ascertain whether (1) stock will normally cat the plant; if so, (2)" whether it will poison them. . . ."