Proceedings of the Royal Society for the month of July, 1877

Abstract

The monthly evening meeting of the Society was held on Tuesday, 10th July. His Excellency the Governor was in the chair. His Excellency, after referring to a former communication he had made to the Society as to the value of a new article of fodder—the pods of the Prosopis pubescens, or Screw Bean—laid on the table some further information on the subject by an employee at the Cinchona Plantation, Jamaica. From this it appeared that, on one occasion, when a horse had eaten a pound of the pods he was found dead on the morning of the third day afterwards, the impression being that the death was due to some poisonous property in the bean. It was, therefore, evident that as a fodder the bean should be very cautiously tried. And caution was the more necessary as it was well known in Jamaica that the pods of another species of the same genus- Prosopis juliflora—though "a valuable fodder," was apt, especially after rain, to produce intestinal disturbances, and in some cases death. As far as the seed which had been distributed by him was concerned, no harm could possibly have been done, as it had quite failed (as far as he was aware) to germinate, vitality having apparently been destroyed by weevil. The Hon. Secretary read a paper "On the Hobart Town Storage Reservoir," by T. Stephens, Esq., F.G.S. The Rev. W. W. Spicer, M.A., F.R.M.S., read a paper "On Plants as Insect Destroyers."