New Zealand Department of Agriculture.

Manawatu Herald, 16 July 1895, Page 3

New Zealand Department of Agriculture.

By T. W. Knw, F.L.S., &c, London. Fig. l r Jffiffp^Qf branch, showing leaves, bud, and flower. Fig. 2. Ripe fruit, opened; aomllf/tne seeds have escaped, others may be seen in place (reduced). Portions of pftftppublished by F. Turner, F.E H.S., in Agricultural Gazette (New South

A native of Europe, but now found in most countries, except in the Arctic and colder temperate regions, An erect, succulent, weedy, muchbranched annual, growing in this colony from lft. to Btfc. high. Stem green, thick, nearly solid, and round. Leaves • italked, rather limp, dull green, paler beneath, margin undulating deeply and irregularly cut, forming unequal teeth. Flowers white and funnel-shaped, about Bin. long, with five lobe 3. Fruit eggflhapea> about Bin. long, covered with sharp stout spines, and contains numerous stjeds. t« ««-*„««» ™v »R'ii J°, P"^ 68 *here n»lch.oows are are kep tit i? a dangerous weed, being ETJffiT^X* W*^ ««v w !!i;« • r g^ lfc i lB !FL£ JfF gUie f am T l3 mll Gat it, save in times of scarcity, Mr. P. R. Gordon, Chief Inspeetor of Stock, Queensland, about five yaari ago wrote to the Sydney Mail as follows: " Quantities af this plant grow in the neighbourhood of Toowoomba, and there have been many deaths jn cattle from eating it. These fcfcths have not been mere cases of surmise. When the Board of Inquiry into 4 Diseases of Live r stock and Plants v (of which I was ex offioio Beeretary) was in existence in this colony, the stomachs of several cattle that had died in paddocks eloie to Toowoomba were forwarded to the Board and analysed by the late Kajl T. Staiger, then Govern* ujtot Analyst; and in each instance the ana]sf& showed death to have been occasioned by the animals haylog eaten the thorn-apple plant. It maybo remarked that in each j n. itance tgfcjoisoning was confined to quiet mjfting cattle, and it will be found aTa rule that mortality from

poisonous plants is confined to quiet milkers, or their progeny. These pet animals will nibble at and eat plants that ordinary bush cattle will not touoh, unless, forced to do so from sheer starvation." „ _ , , _ Messrs Bently and Tremen, in thelr valuable work called " Medicinal Plants," No. 192, say: » The activity of both the leaves and seeds of 2***™ Stramonium is due to the ni Bhly8 hly poisonous alkaloid daturia, or daturine ; and although we have no chemical proof of the existenc of this alkaloid in the other species of Datura, its presence in them can scarcel be The properfcies o{ stramonium are regarded as anodyne and anti. 3pasmodic, and in °^doses it is a powerful poison. It has been found useful in neuralgia rheumatic affections, in gastrodymia, and other painful diseases ; and some have regarded it as a very valuable remedy in mania and epilepsy, but in these diseases it not infrequently produces injurious effects. When used during paroxysms of spasmodic asthma it commonly gives relief and facilitates expectoration. In the latter disease, and also in dyspnoea, catarrhs, and in other cases, the leaves are generally smoked like tobacco, or inhalations from their infusion in warm water resorted to. But its use in these ways requires caution, as it has proved" highly injurious, and some instanoes fatal. In Cochin China a strong decootion of the leaves is regarded as a very efficacious remedy for hydrophobia." m . Thl9 Planfc 1S usually found grow- , IDB on good ground, Specimens received from Auck* land, Picton, Wairarapa, and Rangitikei.