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_ POISONOUS PLANTS
IN FIELD AND GARDEN.
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POISONOUS PLANTS
IN. FIELD AND GARDEN
BY THE
REV. PROFESSOR G. HENSLOW
M.A., F.L.S., F:G.S., ETC.
AUTHOR OF ‘THE MAKING OF FLOWERS,’ ETC.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL
LITERATURE COMMITTEE
| LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C,
BRIGHTON : 129, NorRTH STREET.
New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.
IQOI
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CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION . : ‘ } : ‘ 13
CEASS tT:
DICOTYLEDONS
DIVISION
I. PETALS, FREE; WITHOUT ANY RECEPTACULAR
EXPANSION é ; : ‘ : . 30
Il. PETALS, FREE ; FLOWER WITH A RECEPTACULAR
EXPANSION : : : : . 66
III. COROLLA, WITH THE PETALS COHERENT ar 182
IV. FLOWERS INCOMPLETE; COROLLA WANTING;
SEXES OFTEN SEPARATE , i 4 ee Ys
CLASS II
MONOCOTYLEDONS
I. PERIANTH SUPERIOR AND OVARY INFERIOR . I61
II. PERIANTH INFERIGR AND OVARY SUPERIOR . 169
Il]. FLOWERS WITH GLUMES INSTEAD OF A PERIANTH I 78
3
00D ON An ff
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
. Field Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) ; a> Seg
. Vertical section of flower of Strawberry ; 21
. Vertical section of flower of Peach (petals
removed) . ; ; : ae
. Vertical section of flower of Mase : : 22
. Vertical section of Apple. ; ; cee
. Vertical section of flower of Currant. ; 22
. Stamens and pistil of flower of Pea . : ee
. Traveller’s Joy (Clematis Vitalba) : : COO
. Celery-leaved Buttercup (Ranunculus sceleratus) . 36
Io.
¥i:
mere. TZ,
Boney 3 BR.
ee a 14.
Page. <1.
| 16.
pei 17.
= __-17*, Spindle-tree in fruit (Euonymus europaeus)
18, Buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus) . SE ee
-——--19. Yellow Vetchling (Lathyrus Aphaca) . me
20, Bryony (Bryonia dioica). ; ;
pee = 21. Fool’s Parsley (Zthusa Cynapium) ee ye
22. Hemlock icomiven hear Py RW oe tu
Spear-wort (Ranunculus Flammula)
Fetid Hellebore (Helleborus fetidus) ; ;
Aconite (Aconitum Nafpellus) ,
Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum)
Celandine (Chelidonium majus) . ;
Corn-cockle (Agvostemma Githago) ; ,
Wood-sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella)
Spindle-tree in flower (Euonymus europeus)
23. Water-Hemlock, or Gowbane (Cicuta virosa) Rr ke. era
24. Hemlock Water-Dropwort (nanthe crocata) . 95
| 25. Fine-leaved Dropwort (@. Phellandrium). — « Wer
26. Common Water-Dropwort (@. fistulosa) ; ee
27. Broad Water-Parsnip (Sum latifolium) . SO cee 4.
28. Dwarf Elder (Sambucus Ebulus) : : oF ec Weeets eeu
29. Wild Lettuce (Lactuca virosa) : j e SOS eS
30. Deadly Nightshade (A¢vopa Belladonna) ; 119 ctl .
31. Thorn-apple (Datura Stramonium) . . ~ Shae, sas .
32. Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) . a Wepre soy 5
33. Great Mullein (Verbascum Thapsus) ‘ BOE
34. Figwort (Scrophularia nodosa) . 2° > Cgepeee
35. Yellow Rattle (RAénanthus Cristagilly 2 rote te eres
36. Sheep’s-sorrel (Rumex Acetosella) : 8 eee
37. Spurge-laurel (Daphne Laureola) . ‘ as ! =e
38. Spurge (Euphorbia Helioscopia) . epee Fe Te 3
39. Caper Spurge (Euphorbia Lathyris) : es ae
40. Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) . : oe ee as
41. Yew (Zaxus baccata) F ; ; 5 Sak as
7 42. Black Bryony ( Zamus communis) : ‘ ae 5
oh 43. Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum) 5 = 165, : NS
44. Four-leaved Paris (Paris guadrifolia) . oa 7B - Meee
a 45. Colchicum (Colchicum autumnale) . Paes 173, Sets
46. Darnel (Lolium temulentum)
PRELIMINARY REMEDIES AND ANTIDOTES IN CASES OF
POISONING BY THE FOLLOWING PLANTS RECOM-
MENDED BY EMINENT PHYSICIANS,
Aconite, Monkshood or Wolfsbane
Almonds, Bitter ; and Prussic Acid .
Belladonna, or Deadly Nightshade
Broom ; :
Bryony
Buttercups, etc.
Christmas Rose, or Black eevee
Colchicum, or Meadow Saffron
Cuckoo-pint
Darnel
Dropwort, Water
Elder .
Ergot, a fungus
Fool’s Parsley
Foxglove .
Fungi .
Hellebore (Heliebonis: sp.)
(Veratrum, sp.) .
Hemlock (Conzum)
, Water, or Cowbane (Cicuta) ;
Piachiiie : :
Laburnum . : ,
Larkspur . 3 ‘
x POISONOUS PLANTS
PAGE
Laudanum ‘ : ; 7 : + 8s
Laurel, Common : ; : ° ° 80
Laurel, Spurge. ” . ° ° > AS?
Lobelia : > : . : ; 108
Lords and Ladies , F ; . . 168
Meadow Saffron, or Colchicum ; : ; 176
Mezereon. : . : : ; Pama
Monkshood, or Aconite : ‘ ‘ ‘ 47
Morphine ; . ‘ ; ot 5S
Nightshade, Deadly . - ; : : 322
Oleander . : 4 : ; : 134, 138
Opium ; : ; : ; ; 55
Oxalic Acid ‘ : : ;: P = oe
Poppy . : : ; - as - 54
Potash, Binoxalate of . ; ; : Een
Prickwood, or Spindle-tree . ; a - 69, 138
Prussic Acid P ; ; : ‘ 5 toe
Ranunculus Family . . P é : 33
Savin ; : : : % . 160
Sorrel, Common (Rumex Acetosa) . . . 64
, Wood (Oxalis Acetosella) . F -- -64
Spindle-tree . : : g ; . 69, 138
Spurge, Common. ‘ : A ‘ - 54
——, Caper . ° : ‘ 2 =, 154
Laurel : : 5 : : 147
Thorn-apple . ° P A ‘ 122
Toad-stools , ‘ f . .. ae
Tobacco . : ‘ : : p 133
Water-Dropwort . ° . ° ° ee: |
— Hemlock > : 3 ‘ 94
Wolfsbane, or Aconite . ‘ ‘ R opal
Wood-Sorrel . ‘.
Yew : ; 160
yj ies eee
MR. A. W. BLYTH’S DOMESTIC READY
REMEDIES FOR POISONING
Mr. BLYTH strongly recommends families pos-
sessing an “Antidote Cupboard” for use in cases
of emergency. This cupboard may contain—
(1) The Multiple Antidote, which consists of a
saturated solution of sulphate of iron 100 parts,
water 800, magnesia 88, animal charcoal 44 parts.
It is best to have the animal charcoal and mag-
nesia mixed together in the dry state, and kept in
a well-corked bottle; when required for use, the
saturated solution of sulphate of iron is mixed
with eight times its bulk of water, and the mixture
of charcoal and magnesia added with constant
stirring. The multiple antidote may be given in
wine-glassful doses, frequently repeated, in cases of _
poisoning by arsenic, zinc, opium, foxglove or digi-
talis, mercury, or strychnine. It is of no use in
phosphorus poisoning, or in poisoning by the caustic
alkalies or antimony.
(2) Calcined magnesia or any bland oil for use
_ in poisoning by acids.
xii POISONOUS PLANTS
(3) French turpentine for ise by phos-
phorus. |
(4) Powdered ipecacuanha in awell coreed bottle;
the bottle containing a small pill-box, which is cut
down, so that when full it contains thirty grains—.
the proper dose as an emetic. A similar small
supply of sulphate of zinc may also be provided.
(5) A tin of mustard for emetics ; and sulphate
of zinc tablets.
(6) A bottle of vinegar, in cases of poison by
alkalies, such as caustic soda.
If then, provided with such a supply, any mem-
ber is known to have taken poison, and yet the
precise poison is not known, give a sulphate of
gine or tpecacuanha emetic, and follow it up by the
multiple antidote, which is in itself not poisonous.
In adding the remedies suggested by eminent
medical men, I have quoted such, as a rule, as
can be applied at once ; but I have omitted what
can only be left to the ‘wees man, who should
be called in as soon as possible when any ietba
poisoning has occurred.
POISONOUS PLANTS
oe. TN FIELD AND GARDEN |
INTRODUCTION
c THE number of children who are made more
or less ill by eating berries and leaves, etc., which
they find in the hedges, is undoubtedly very con- -
-siderable every year; but the number of /ata/
results is probably very small. There is no doubt
that .mishaps might be considerably reduced if
our country clergy, school-masters, and school-
mistresses, knew something about wild flowers,
9 and could distinguish between poisonous and
QQ. harmless plants.
—..Itis the object of this book to enumerate and
em describe such of our common wild plants, as well
= as some frequently cultivated, which are at all
Ss likely to prove harmful to our little ones; who are
_ only too apt to put everything which appears —
4 3 attractive into their mouths,
eS ee ee
14 POISONOUS PLANTS -
In describing plants as “ poisonous,” it must be
borne in mind that the word “ poison” is a purely
relative term; and if it seem to convey the idea of
“deadliness,” such is, as a rule, only applicable to
it in its more concentrated form as prepared by
chemists. Thus, e.g. children have been made ill
by eating too many leaves of the common sorrel,
which is perfectly harmless as a salad plant; but
the pleasant acidity is due to the presence of
binoxalate of potash; which, when sold as “salts
of lemon” for taking out ink-stains, is a dangerous
substance. |
The following is the definition of a Poison as
given by Mr. Alexander Wynter Blyth:—“A
substance of definite chemical composition, whether
mineral or organic, may be called a poison, if it is
capable of being taken into any living organism,
and causes, by its own inherent chemical nature,
_ impairment or destruction of function.”
The late Dr. B. W. Richardson observed that
poisons are not always so bad as they are made out
to be, bad as they are; and he quoted a saying
from our great national dramatist, Shakespeare :— —
“There is a soul of goodness in things evil,
Would man observingly distil it out.”
Thus a large number of substances, which are very
poisonous if taken in any quantity, become valuable
medicines in the hands of-skilful practitioners.
ae
=
oe ee
INTRODUCTION 15
The various authorities, from whose works I
_have mainly compiled the present volume on British
and cultivated Garden poisonous plants, are as
follows: Mr. Alexander Wynter Blyth’s Old and
Modern Poison Lore, and his Potsons, their Effects
and Detection (1895); M. Ch. Cornevin’s work
entitled Des Plantes vénéneuses (this contains all
of our harmful English plants, as well as those
of the Continent); Dr. Tanner’s Memoranda on
-Potsons (1862); Dr. R. Hogg’s Vegetable Kingdom
(1858) ; and Mr. Johnson’s Brztzsh Poisonous Plants
(1856).!
It is not merely children who should be warned
against putting anything they find growing wild
into their mouths ; even adults are apt to make the
most stupid mistakes. Thus the garden Aconite,
which no one can mistake when in flower, having
long been in cultivation in cottage gardens, has
been the cause of the death of whole families ;
because, in the limited space at the disposal of the
_1 As it was inconvenient to give repeated references in
almost every paragraph, I here express my indebtedness,
_ generally, to the authors mentioned, from whom I have
= borrowed freely, often quoting verbatim.
_ The illustrations are mainly from Bentham’s Handbook of
_. the British Flora: two, that of the Buttercup and Fool’s
Parsley, from my own book, How to Study Wild Flowers
__ _(R.T.S.), to which I would refer the reader for a more com-
5 plete knowledge of the structure of our principal wild flowers
__ than can be given in this Introduction.
cede a pee
0 Ol ae ae
=
16 POISONOUS PLANTS
cottager, a little horse-radish is also grown. In
winter he digs up a root and poisons his family,
having supplied them with Aconite by mistake, Or
again, they collect the thick roots of the Water-
Hemlock, or other harmful plant, as a substitute
for parsnips ; or the leaves of the Fool’s Parsley for
those of the true one, etc. Such mistakes are often
made with painful results to the consumer, even if
they be not fatal.
These and such-like are the cases one would
wish to prevent in future ; if only those who could
do so would impart the knowledge to our country
children ; as the late Rev. Prof. J. S. Henslow did,
to the village children of Hitcham, Suffolk, more
than forty years ago.t
THE STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS.
IN order to be able to recognize poisonous
herbs, shrubs, or trees, some little knowledge of the
structure of flowers and fruits is necessary ; so I
1 It would be greatly to their advantage educationally, as
well as useful, if the subject of Botany were generally intro-
duced into our schools, on the plan adopted by my father.
Then, besides a general collection of all the wild flowers of
the district, one of the poisonous fruits and seeds for com- —
parison would be invaluable. But it requires some little
enthusiasm on the part of the incumbent as well as of the
school-master. .
4
=
THE STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS 17
propose giving a general description, that the
reader may be able to understand and recognize
flowers by the peculiarities of their several parts.
Let us take some common flower as a butter-
cup, and dissect it. If the reader can procure a
living specimen, it is desirable todo so; but if not,
Fig. x. Ranunculus acris; Field Buttercup.
ee (Pig: 1).
The flower consists of four floral Whorls. The
two outermost are called the Calyx, of five free
sepals ; and the Corolla, of five free fetals, each of
which has a little honey-gland at the base.
The third whorl consists of numerous Stamens,
ame ton Se ; B
18 POISONOUS PLANTS
each of which is composed of a stalk or filament
carrying the yellow anther at the top (Figs. 1 ; 2and
2*), This consists of two cells, united back to
back by the continuation of the filament, called the
connective (shown in Fig. 2). The cells split down the
edges and liberate the fol/en, a kind of dust
consisting of yellow spherical grains.
If the stamens be removed, a small slopitae
structure will be seen left behind. This is the Pzs¢z/,
which consists of numerous free carfels, making
the fourth whorl (Figs. 3 and 6).
We will now refer to the illustration for more
special details.
This represents the flowering top of our common
field buttercup (Ranunculus acris), called acris by
Linnzus because of its very acrid juice. The leaves
spring up from the ground and have their blades”
deeply cleft into about five sharp-pointed “seg-
ments ”; and then, these are again cleft. The flower-
stalk is smooth and round (not fluted as in the-
bulbous buttercup, which flowers rather earlier
than the field buttercup).
Examining a flower, it will be seen that the
_ sepals spread out under the petals (4); (a) repre-
sents little bracts. These are rudimentary blades
of leaves reduced to one or a few segments only.
The petal (Fig. 1) shows the minute notched
flap in front of a honey-pit. Fig. 2* is a stamen
puawing an anther just beginning to burst ae . |
a
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Fern e
cape ae a
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13 ae
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THE STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS 19
the right-hand edge. Fig. 2 is another stamen
with both of the anther-cells open to shed the
pollen. Fig. 3 is a flower in which the carpels are
beginning to ripen, and from which the sepals,
petals, and most of the stamens have fallen off.
The floral receptacle is the enlarged, somewhat
globular support for the parts of the flower. Fig. 4
is a carpel, (a) being the ovary, (0) the style, and
(c) the stigma. Fig. 5 is the same cut vertically
showing the ovule at the base of the ovary. This
becomes the seed and then fills the ovary-cell
completely, as shown in Fig. 8.
Fig. 6, the carpels are now ripe, making a head
of achenes. Fig. 7 is one of them separated, and
Fig. 8 is a section showing the seed cleft in half,
and filling the entire chamber of the pericarp as the
_ ripened carpel is now called. Its minute embryo
is seen at the base embedded in exdosperm (flour,
in wheat). Figs. 9 and Io are two views of the
embryo.
We must now briefly consider ie uses of these
parts of a flower,
i The calyx protects the rest of the flower when
“oe
__- undeveloped in the bud. .
bce The corolla attracts insects, which come for
2 honey or pollen, by its bright colour.
The stamens shed the fertilizing pollen on to-
ss bees, etc, or else on to the stigma. In the
former case, it is conveyed to other flowers of the
20 POISONOUS PLANTS
same kind; in the latter the carpels become
fertilized at once.
For, as soon as a pollen-grain has fallen upon
a stigma, it sends down a little tube into the
ovary, and then into the ovule, by means of a
little hole prepared to receive it. A fertilizing
matter called the sperm-cell then unites with the
germ-cell within the ovule, and the result is finally
an embryo with or without endosperm; which is
reserve food-material, upon which the embryo
lives when it germinates until it has provided ©
itself with true roots and green leaves.
As soon as the carpels have been fertilized,
the sepals, petals, and stamens wither and fall off.
The former now enlargeuntil theyare fully matured,
turn brown and then fall off. Each little carpel
has now become an achene or fruit; while its
ovule has developed into a seed. In this case the
ovary of the carpel dries up and is called as stated
the fericarp, and remains tightly investing the
seed within it.
The next point to notice is the behaviour of
the flower-stalk. This is called the Peduncle if
it carries a single flower, as of a tulip, or a head
of flowers or rather “ florets” as they are diminutive
in size, as of a daisy or dandelion. But, if each
flower is borne on its own little stalk arising from
the peduncle, such is called the Pedicel, as in a_
bunch of currants or the Lily of the Miss. tnd
the form of a cup round the
pistil. This is the case with fig 3. vert. sec, of flower of
} Peach.
THE STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS ag |
either case the terminal part which carries all the
parts of the flower is enlarged into what is
called the Floral Receptacle. In the raspberry it
forms a cone up the middle of the fruit and in
the strawberry it is enormously enlarged and forms
the edible structure.
But, besides the terminal enlarged part, it may
spread out more or less horizontally and form a
ring round the base of the
flower. Such occurs in
the raspberry and straw-
berry (Fig. 2), when it
constitutes alittletrough.
The outer edge now
carries the sepals, petals,
and stamens to a little
distance away from the pistil which alone remains
on the central support, as shown in the figure.
The use of this lateral expansion is the formation
of the honey-secreting surface. |
Yet a further growth may
take place. The outer rim
which carries the sepals, petals,
and stamens may grow up into
Fig. 2. Vert. sec. of flower of Strawberry.
the almond, cherry or peach
~ (Fig. 3), and rose (Fig. 4). In the first three
named, there is only one carpel which becomes
22 POISONOUS PLANTS
the fruit; but in the rose, the cup or “hep” is full
of free carpels which can be picked out of this
“receptacular tube,” as it is called ;
as may be seen in Fig. 4.
Yet one more condition may
exist. In the preceding cases the
carpels can be removed and the
cup will be left behind. But, in
the case of the pear, apple (Fig. 5),
gooseberry, currant (Fig. 6), etc.,
adhesion to the carpels within it,
ig.4. Vert. sec. of so that it cannot now be separated.
ower of Rose 4
Thus in the apple the carpels
form the “core”; but the edible portion is mainly
“ flower-stalk,” ze. the adherent receptacular tube.
Fig. 5. Vert. sec. of Apple. Fig. 6. Vert. sec. of fower of Currant.
As the flower Jooks as if it grew on the top of
the ovary, this Jatter is said to be “inferior,” 2, 2. cee
“below” the flower.
the receptacular tube has grown in |
THE STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS he
“Inferior” fruits can generally be recognized
by having the withered sepals and stamens on the
top, as shown in Fig. 5; while the petals fall off.
This will be recalled in the case of the gooseberry
and currant, apples, pears, etc.
Cucumbers and melons, and the scarlet berry
of the Bryony, however, are also inferior fruits ;
but with them the whole of the flower articulates,
leaving a clean scar on the top of the inferior ovary.
We must now notice another modification in
flowers, and that is
the coheston which may
take place between the
parts of the whorls.
In buttercups, every- ,
thing is free ; but in Fig. 7. Stamens of Pea ; nine coherent,
the primrose, the five es
sepals are joined together; so are the five petals
into a tube; and the globular ovary consists of
five coherent carpels. |
In the Pea family the stamens are united by
their filaments making a complete tube in Laburnum
and Broom ; but with one of the ten stamens free
in most athets of this family (Fig. 7), in order to
allow insects to get at the honey. secreted within
the tube; z.e. by the receptacle round the base of
the single carpel, the stigma of which protrudes. -
-Carpels, if two or more in number, are generally
united. Thus there are two in Thorn-apple (Fig. 31)
24. POISONOUS PLANTS
and Hemlock (Fig. 22), several in the Poppy-head
(Fig. 13).
The number of parts in the whorls may vary
from two to six, being rarely more unless the
flower be “double.” Fours and fives prevail in
Dicotyledons and threes in Monocotyledons ;
these being the two great classes which contain
all flowering plants.
Lastly, any whorl may be regular or ‘erage
z.€. if the parts be all exactly alike, or with some
of them unlike. Thus in a Buttercup (Fig. 1) and
Primrose every whorl is regular ; but in the Lark-
spur and Aconite (Fig. 12) the sepals are irregular,
and in all members of the Foxglove family as well
as that of the Labiates—not referred to in this
book as they contain no poisonous plant—the
corolla is irregular, as seen in the common Dead-
nettle and Sage.
CLASSIFICATION.
BEFORE discussing individual poisonous plants,
we must consider on what principles they are
arranged ; to do this we can follow the lines of
historical botany; for, at first, as a general rule,
every plant was known by a single name; but it
was early observed that in many cases there were
obviously plants so much alike that they all had
to be called by the same name; but, at the same
CLASSIFICATION 25
time, there were as obviously certain differences,
so that a second name was given to each. Thus
a medical botanist who wrote in the tenth century
(and others before him) speaks of <Aréstolochia
clematis, A. longa, and A. rotunda, the two latter.
terms referring to the shape of the root. Another
writer in the fifteenth century says of 77¢zmallus
(which we now call Euphorbia), there are many
“ species.”
As more and more plants came to be studied
for their real or supposed medicinal virtues, more
words were required to distinguish certain plants,
till their titles became most cumbersome.
It was Linnzus who, in the eighteenth century,
based his system of classification by fixing fzwo
names to every plant; the first being the “ generic ”
name, the second the “ specific.”
He made use of the old names, sometimes retain-
ing them as the gezus, as Senecto (the groundsel),
and adding vulgaris, because it isso common. In
other cases he used the old name as the species.
When this was the case, it is spelt with an initial
capital letter, as Ranunculus Flammulaand Solanum
Dulcamara. To other species, which had no special
names, Linnzus supplied them, as Ranunculus —
bulbosus and R. repens (from the forms of the
stems), 2. acrzs (from its acridity), and R. ees
(from its living in water), etc.
When it was found that many plants, highs no
ale ae — ae ah Nt eS ee
$ . a= ee : a
: - » Ps =
26 POISONOUS PLANTS
one would call buttercups, had yet a very close
similarity to them in the structure of their flowers
—as Anemones, which agree with buttercups in
having many stamens and many carpels; but the
corolla is wanting, and the calyx is coloured or
white—then this formed a genus side by side with
Ranunculus, containing several species also.
So botanists grouped together a number of
genera, all more or less agreeing with buttercups,
yet at the same time possessing differences which
prevent their being entitled to be called such.
Collectively, the gezera constitute a Family, or
as Botanists call it a “ Natural Order.”
Botanists next proceed to arrange the families
in a certain sequence, in accordance with the
various points of structure already explained, as
follows :— :
First—All families with /vee petals and xo
lateral expansion of the floral receptacle, or recep-
tacular tube.
Second.—All families with free petals, but pos-
sessing a receptacular expansion or tube of some
form or other.
Third.—All families with coherent petals.
Fourth.—Pliants having incomplete flowers, z. ¢.
having, as a rule, no petals at all. Me
Then follows a group which is only represented
in the British Isles by three trees or shrubs—the
Scotch Fir, the common Juniper, and the Yew.
CLASSIFICATION 27
Their peculiarity is that they have only stamens
and ovules. There is no calyx or corolla, and xo
pisti ; so that the ovules are naked. Hence the
group is called Gymnosperms.
All the preceding constitute the class Dzcotyledons.
There remain three more groups of Families.
First.—All plants with a perzanth instead of a
calyx and corolla. This word is used because the
parts of these two whorls are more or less alike
and “ petaloid,” ze. of the nature and appearance
of petals. These form two groups, viz.i—Those
with an zzferior ovary, and, therefore, a superior
perianth, as the Daffodil; those with a superior
ovary, and, therefore, an zzferzor perianth, as the
Colchicum.
Lastly come those families which have their
stamens and pistil protected by chaff-scales called
“glumes.” Such are the Sedges and Grasses,
The only one alluded to in this book is a grass
occurring in cornfields, called the Darnel.
All the preceding are included under the class
Monocotyledons.
The two classes derive their names from the
fact that the embryo in the seed of dicotyledons
has two seed-leaves or cotyledons, and that of
monocotyledons has only one.
Everybody is familiar with almonds, beans,
peas, and acorns, which readily separate into two
halves, but are united to a little bud at one side
¥ th
28 POISONOUS PLANTS
or edge. They are represented in the tiny embryo
of the Buttercup (Figs. 1; 9, 10; p.17). When
such seeds germinate, the two cotyledons often
come above ground and turn green, as in mustard
and cress.
In germinating onions, a single leaf comes up at
first. This is the one cotyledon, as they belong
to the Lily family, which is a monocotyledonous
group.
These two Classes, are, however, known by a
collection of characters, and not only by their
embryos.
Thus, when a seed germinates, as of a carrot or
parsnip, it develops an axial or tap-root, if it bea
dicotyledon. In monocotyledons this is always
arrested and secondary roots issue from the stem.
Again, the stem of a dicotyledon, if woody, has
concentric cylinders of wood, one being formed
every year ; so they appear as rings in a transverse
section of any of our timber-trees or shrubs, which
thus reveal the age of the tree.
In a monocotyledon the wood is broken up into
isolated cords running anywhere through a mass
of soft tissue. Such is easily observed in a stick
of asparagus.
The leaves of all our trees and shrubs have
a reticulated “venation”; ze. the woody frame-
work upon which the green tissue is spread out
forms a sort of network.
CLASSIFICATION 29
In monocotyledons, as seen in a blade of grass
if held up to the light, the cords run parallel to
one another, from end to end.
In the flowers, the parts of the whorls are
usually multiples of 2 and 5 in dicotyledons, and
of 3 in monocotyledons.
The above distinctions are not without excep-
tions. Thus the leaves of Lords and Ladies (Arum
maculatum (Fig. 43), and of Paris (Fig. 44), though
belonging to the monocotyledons, have net-veined
foliage.
The stem of the Butcher’s Broom (Ruscus acu-
leatus) is woody, but the structure is that of a
monocotyledonous stem, since it belonzs to the
Lily family, as does also Paris.
Lastly, the Lesser Celandine( Ranunculus Ficaria)
has only one cotyledon.
The Water-crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) has
the tap-root generally arrested, as is the universal
rule in monocotyledons, though the genus Ranun-
culus is a dicotyledon.
CLASS I
DICOTYLEDONS
DIVISION I
PETALS, FREE; WITHOUT ANY RECEPTACULAR
EXPANSION
BUTTERCUP FAMILY (Ranunculacee).—T he com-_
monest plants of this family are Travellers Joy,
Wood Anemone, Buttercups, Water-crowfoot, Marsh
Marigold, Hellebores, Columbine, Winter Aconite,
Larkspur, and Aconite.t
A poisonous acrid and narcotic principle prevails —
in varying degrees in all the members of this family,
The Water-crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) appears
1 Rarer wild plants, and some cultivated, are the follow-
ing :—Meadow-rue, Pasque-flower (A emone), Pheasant’s-eye,
Mouse-tail, Globe-flower, Bane-berry(Ac/@a), Peony, Love-in-
~ a-mist, and Christmas-rose (//e//eborus). The chief characters
of the flowers are to have every part of them perfectly
Sree, with many stamens, and either many carpels ripening
into seed-like “achenes,” or a few only, becoming pods or
* follicles.”
30
DICOTYLEDONS 31
however to be free from it; or it is so attenuated
that the plant is collected from the rivers and
given to horses and cattle in some parts of the
midland counties.
The principle is volatile, so that it is easily de-
stroyed by drying, or boiling, and even pickling,
as vinegar renders the plant harmless. The roots
as a rule are the most energetic ; but even the
petals of buttercups, and especially of the Acon-
ite, are deleterious if put into the mouth and
a ok Wes,
= § Pes eck
. rm 5
Re
a: e f
masticated. 3
The members of this Order most likely to cause
_ trouble are the following :—
TRAVELLER’S JOY, or OLD MAN’S BEARD
(Clematis Vitalba).—The first English name was
given to it by Gerard in 1597. He thus writes in
his Herball :—* It is called commonly Viorna quasi
vias ornans, of decking and adorning waies and
hedges, where people trauell, and thereupon I haue
named it the Trauveilers Ioie.” The second name
is given to it because of its white, wool-like mass
of feathery achenes when ripe in autumn (see
Fig. 8).
The plant has compound leaves of two pairs,
and one single leaflet as shown in the figure. Their
stalks are extremely sensitive to touch; so that
they twine round anything they happen to meet
and support the plant.
The flower has four sepals, no oe doe
32 POISONOUS PLANTS
stamens, and many carpels, the styles of which
elongate and are hairy in fruit.
aK GS
\\
Fig. 8. Clematis Vitalba; Traveller’s Joy.
It has all its parts poisonous. Tramps some-
DICOTYLEDONS ~ 33
times raise sores on their arms by means of the
juice of this plant rubbed into scratches, as well as
that of some species of Ranunculus, in order to
excite commiseration. The juice is, as in all other
species, acrid and narcotic, but the poison is readily
dissipated by heat. If the fresh leaves be chewed,
there will be felt in the mouth a sensation of heat
and smarting, and the tongue will be covered with
small vesicles, which turn to ulcers. If swallowed,
the juice or extract produces all the symptoms of
poisoning by the acrid poisons. In early spring
before it is much developed, asses and goats have
eaten the young shoots with impunity. They are
also eaten pickled in vinegar in some countries ;
taken internally in a more harmful quantity, they
act asa diuretic, and are violently purgative, produc-
ing dysentery, and can in rare cases cause death.!
ANEMONE (Axemone, sp.).—Only two species
represent this genus in England.
PASQUE-FLOWER (Azemone Pulsatilla).—This
has a thick and somewhat woody rootstock, from
which much-dissected leaves arise, covered with
silky hairs, more especially when young. The
1 The best antidotes, as given by Dr. Brunton, are first
endeavouring to empty the stomach by means of emetics ;
_then the use of spirits, or ammonia, and warmth. Other
remedies, as Digitalis and Atropine, must be left to the
physician. The preceding apply to Aconite-poisoning ; but
tet
arf ead “
of
- ~- - .
a POISONOUS PLANTS :
flower is borne on a peduncle, five to eight inches —
in length, carrying an involucre of three sessile,
deeply-cut bracts. The flowers have six sepals of
a dull violet-purple colour, very silky externally ;
the carpels when ripe have their styles converted
into long feathery tails, like those of the Traveller's
Joy (Clematis Vitalba).
WOOD-ANEMONE (A. xemorosa)—This has a
long, creeping rootstock. The involucre consists of
three complete leaves. The flower has six white or
rosy-coloured sepals; the carpels become tailless
achenes like those of the buttercup.
All species are harmful, and several are culti-
vated, such as A. coronaria and A. hortensis from
South Europe, A. japonica from Japan, etc. The:
leaves and sepals, etc., should not be put into the
mouth. The toxic principle has been extracted
from three species: the two here described, and
one foreign one. No fatal results have been recorded.
A foreign species (A. ranunculoides) is used in
Kamtschatka for poisoning arrows.
In France, swelling and blistering of the hands
has resulted from using the juice as a stimulant to
ulcerations, etc.
Cattle have been poisoned by their eating the :
Wood-anemone in the fresh state, after having been
underfed and kept on dry food during the winter ;
when they become less discriminating and he =
to eat any fresh green food.
~BUTTERCUP (Ranunculus, sp.1)—The deleterious
principle is common to nearly all kinds of Ranun-
culus, and varies very much in strength; the most
acrid are FR. dbulbosus, R. acris, R. sceleratus, R.
Flammula, R. auricomus, R. arvensis, and a foreign
species, 2. ¢hora.
The Water-crowfoot and its numerous varieties
or species, according to different botanists, appear
to be the least harmful, as cattle eat it with
impunity ; in the neighbourhood of Kingswood,
on the borders of the Avon, cottagers used to
support their cattle almost entirely on this species
of Crowfoot. It is said that one man kept four
cows and one horse so much upon it that they
had not consumed more than half a ton of hay
throughout the whole year. They collected a
quantity every morning and brought it in a boat
to the edge of the water, where the cows ate it
with great avidity.
It is no doubt due to being submerged that the
deleterious property is not produced in this species.
CELERY-LEAVED RANUNCULUS (R&. sceleratus,
Fig. 9).—This is an annual plant common in
_ ditches; varying in height from a few inches to —
several feet.2
1 For description of the Buttercup (A. acrzs) see the Intro-
duction.
-? I collected a tiny variety, about two inches in height, on
ie ground occasionally flooded, close to the Great Pyramid.
DICOTYLEDONS 35
BG io POISONOUS PLANTS
It has smooth divided leaves and very small
flowers, and small oblong masses of minute achenes
(Fig. 9). It was formerly used medicinally ; but
as accidents happened, it has been discarded by
modern practitioners. The juice acts as an irritant
-on the skin. As heat dispels the poison, the poor
have been known to eat the young shoots when
boiled. The leaves, as of several of the Umbellifers
Fig. 9. Ranunculus sceleratus ; Celery-leaved Ranunculus.
which resemble parsley or celery, have been eaten
as such with harmful results. Cattle have even
died in consequence of the species having been
mixed up in miscellaneous herbage as fodder.
BULBOUS RANUNCULUS (XK. dulbosus) and FIELD
BUTTERCUP (X. acris, Fig. 1), so named by Linnzeus
for its acridity, are equally common in meadows;
the former flowering first, and then followed bythe
latter. ae
DICOTYLEDONS 37
These Common Buttercups have very powerful
and acrid properties; and their fruzts, when green,
appear to be the parts in which this acridity is
most intense.
Taken internally, the juice or extract of R. acris
causes an intense inflammation of the digestive
organs ; and if the quantity has been considerable
it acts as a true acrid poison, followed by very
serious results, and it may be, even death.
A slice of the corm of R. dulbosus is used as a
popular remedy for toothache. It is most charged
with acridity when the plant is full-grown, before
being cut down for hay. As drying dissipates the
deleterious principle, although horses and cows
never touch buttercups in full leaf or in flower, yet
they eat them when dried in hay without any injuri-
ous result. They, in fact, then form nourishing food.
Though the Field Buttercups have an acrid juice
which sometimes irritates the hands, if the juicy,
bruised stems be grasped too strongly, especially
in hot weather, yet it is those which frequent
marshes, or the margins of ponds and ditches, which
are more deleterious. It is rarely that any one
has been poisoned ; but a medical man records the
fact of a young lady aged fifteen, who, after having
chewed the stems and flowers of the bulbous butter-
cup, and sucked the juice, suffered severely for
over a week, exhibiting all the symptoms of acrid
poisoning and delirium,
38 POISONOUS PLANTS
Another curious case occurred in America.
Specimens of the Field Buttercup (2. acris) had
been preserved in spirits of wine for more than a
year. They were subsequently given to a class of
students in the University of Pennsylvania. A
day or two afterwards an intense itching sensation
was felt by all who handled them ; while the skin
between the fingers became red and covered with
minute pustules. The acrid juice had evidently
been extracted ; and when the alcohol had evapor-
ated, it was left on the hands.
The petals as well as the half-ripe green fruits
appear to be the most acrid ; so that children who
persist in putting everything into their mouths
should be warned. If the fresh-bruised leaves be
applied to the skin, a more or less active inflam-
mation will follow, forming a true blister. Recourse —
was formerly had to this method in Norway
and Scotland, where true cantharides was not
procurable. :
SPEAR-WoORT (R. Flammula, Fig. 10)—This is —
a common species in wet places, often growing
actually in the water. It has long, narrow, and
pointed leaves with a toothed margin. Itis a very
acrid species,
The attention of farmers should be called to -. :
this species of Ranunculus, because it has re-
peatedly killed horses and cows which have eaten _
it, as it is often very abundant in boggy ‘parts of - = ‘
: ‘DICOTYLEDONS ete to
‘meadows. Such mishaps occurred, for example,
in the village of Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire. It
Fig. ro, Ranunculus Flammula ; Spear-wort.
is easily recognized as having a flower like that of
acommon buttercup, only smaller, being about half-
an-inch in diameter when fully expanded. More-
_ over its foliage is very different from that of any
field buttercup.
LESSER CELANDINE (R. Ficaria).—This species
differs from other buttercups in having heart-shaped,
- smooth leaves, a corolla of several (about seven or ~
eight) petals and only three sepals. It is a familiar
plant, flowering in early spring. It is scarcely
‘poisonous when young, for in Germany the roots
are eaten as a salad; but later it becomes so.
Heifers have been poisoned by it.
- It is to be noted that the strength of the acrid
principle varies according to locality and season, —
FO ED re pe ee gaen = fe
_ a We ~~
40 POISONOUS PLANTS —
Thus early in spring it is scarcely developed,
but increases with the growth of the plant, and is
strongest at the period of flowering, decreasing
subsequently.
It is said that wood-pigeons eat the club-shaped
roots with great avidity, and its growth is some-
times encouraged in the vicinity of gardens to
prevent their depredations in winter.
MARSH MARIGOLD (Caltha palustris) isa familiar
plant, with round leaves, and large, golden-coloured
flowers. It has really no corolla, for the calyx has
become coloured in lieu of it. There are numerous
stamens and many carpels. Unlike buttercups,
these are many-ovuled and become pod-like “ fol-
licles,” distinguishable from pea-pods or ‘‘ legumes”
by bursting down one edge only ; whereas a legume
breaks into two valves.
It resembles the buttercups in its noxious prin-
ciple; as with them its acridity increases with age.
All animals refuse it, and they have only suffered
when the plant has been carelessly mixed with
forage.
It is stated that kine have eaten the Marsh
Marigold, and died from the inflammation caused
by it. In some parts of Germany the young buds
are pickled like capers.
A species of Caltha in Nepal is used for poison-
ing darts; also for poisoning wells to stop the
invasion of enemies, —
~
DICOTYLEDONS AI
A curious case is recorded of a large quantity of
the flowers of this plant being in a room with a
girl subject to fits, and that the gaseous exhalation
caused these to cease. This, however, seems to
need confirmation.
HELLEBORE (Hedeborus, sp.)—The two British
Fig. rr. Helleborus foetidus; Fetid Hellebore.
species, the Green and the Fetid! (77. vzrzdzs and
H. fetidus, Fig. 11), are found sparingly in several
counties. The leaves have long stalks with a
divided blade and toothed segments, The flowers
have a green calyx of five large sepals, spreading
‘in the Green, but erect and overlapping one another _
1 This species is also called Bear’s-foot, Setterwort and _
_ Helleboraster, ne
42 POISONOUS PLANTS
in the Fetid Hellebore. The corolla is wanting,
but represented by a number of little honey-tubes.
There are many stamens and about three carpels,
which become pod-like follicles when ripe. |
Both of our native species are powerfully cathartic, -
and so acquired an early reputation as remedies
for certain complaints. Irregular practitioners
have employed them with fatal results, issuing
from violent internal inflammation. Thus a child
died after taking two dessert-spoonfuls of the
infusion of the Fetid Hellebore.
Several cases are known of adults having been
poisoned by taking it as a cathartic medicine.
Besides human beings, cows have died from
eating the trimmings of the Fetid Hellebore mixed
with other herbage when thrown out from a shrub-
bery into the field where they were.
CHRISTMAS-ROSE (//. wzger) has long been
cultivated asa garden plant, and was formerly used
medicinally; but it has been discarded from the
Pharmacopceia as too uncertain and dangerous in
its action. Human beings have only been injured —
by the ill-advised and careless use of the plant __
as a drug, especially by unqualified practitioners.
The roots are said to possess the greatest activity;
but the leaves are also poisonous when used in the
form of aninfusion. Half-a-drachm of the aqueous 83
extract killed a man aged fifty ineight hours.
Numerous other cases besides the above, taken
DICOTYLEDONS : 43°53:
from Dr. Taylor’s work, are recorded; so that
since the green part of the Hellebores are very
dangerous, neither they, nor the flowers, which are
also green, should ever be put into the mouth.!
ACONITE (Aconitum Napellus, Fig. 12)—The
_ Aconite has deeply divided leaves with tall spikes
Fig. 12. Aconitum Napellus; Aconite.
oR of deep blue to white flowers in cultivation, easily ota
3 . recognizable by one sepal of the blue calyx being i
in the form of a hood. The two petals are like
__ crosiers, and converted into nectaries. The numerous
: 1 Dr. Tanner recommends for poisoning by Hellebore,
e emetics, purgatives, and stimulants, as the best means to
_ prevent fatal results from these as well as from many other
vegetable poisons. | 5 :
* -
ay
A4 POISONOUS PLANTS
stamens are pendulous at first, but rise up in succes-
sion, placing the anther forward, so that when
visited by humble-bees they readily get dusted
with pollen.
The root is spindle-shaped—pale-coloured whe
young, but acquiring a dark brown skin subse-
quently.
It was well known to the ancients as deadly
poisonous, and was fabled as the invention of
Hecate from the foam of Cerberus. It was the
poison used in the island of Ceos, where all who
were of no use to the State were poisoned. Old ~
men were thus disposed of.
As all parts of the plant are deleterious, it is
most important to caution people from chewing
either the leaves or flowers, as a sensation of
numbness will be felt in the mouth for some hours.
If a larger quantity than will only cause this be
taken internally, great burning will be occasioned, ©
followed by tremors.
The taste is bitter, though at first rather sweet,
followed soon by a burning sensation, accompanied |
by great salivation. So acrid is the poison, that
the juice applied to a wounded finger affected the
whole system: not only causing pains in the limbs, fe:
but a sense of suffocation and syncope. -:
Linnzus says that the Aconite is fatal to kine
and goats when they eat it fresh; but that when
dried it does no harm to horses, In this respect it
“DICOTYLEDONS AS
agrees with buttercups. He relates in the Stock-
holm Acts that an ignorant surgeon having pre-
scribed the leaves, on his patient refusing to take
them, took a dose himself, and died in consequence.
It is curious that a similar occurrence has been
recorded, of a person who, having eaten some leaves
of Aconite, became maniacal; and when a surgeon
was called in, he denied that the plant was the
cause of his. delirium; so he ate freely of the
leaves himself, and exhibited also all the symptoms
of mania.
Aconite poisoning of wells by a virulent Indian
species (A. fervor) has been carried out by native
Indians to stop the progress of,an army, as in the
case of the Nepal war ; but it was discovered in time.
They also use it for poisoning spears, darts, and
arrows, and for destroying tigers; two and a half
grains of the extract are sufficient to kill a strong
dog.
Besides the root, the leaves have been eaten as a
salad with fatal results.
The whole plant is so dangerous that cottagers
who have but a limited space for their vegetables
and flowers should be advised never to grow it ; or
if they have it, to eject at once and burn any plants
of Aconite there may be.
All children should be eet warned against
the Aconite, when .in gardens; and told never to”
pat put bits of leaves or petals in their mouths.
46 POISONOUS PLANTS
Though cultivation somewhat reduces the
noxious properties, it does so to so slight a degree
that many families have been poisoned by eating
the root in mistake for horse-radish. It is difficult
to conceive how the mistake arose at first ; but it
has been suggested that after scraping a root of.
horse-radish to a point, it has been replaced in the
ground ; since having a crown-bud at the top, it
would grow again. Subsequently a root of aconite
was presumably taken up, under the impression it
was the former scraped root, which had acquired a»
similar pointed shape.
At all events, the Aconite should never be grown —
among kitchen herbs of any sort, even if it be
planted for its flowers in a herbaceous border.
4 conite has a root which is (1) conzeal and taper-
ing toa point. (2) It is externally of an earthy-
Srown colour ; (3) white internally, and of an (4)
earthy smell, It has at first (5) a bitter taste; but
soon afterwards (6) it leaves a disagreeable tingling
and numbness. | )
Florse-radish root is (1) long, cylindrical, or
nearly so, and of the same thickness for many
inches. (2) It is externally whztish-yellow ; (3)
and also internally; but it has a (4) pungent
odour when scraped. Its taste is (5) sometimes
bitter ; but it produces an (6) immediate pungent
sensation.
It is difficult to understand how the root of oe
Re, RS Se a ee LE a AE ee Ne eee
eh acne es ate, ean ‘ Rae Niet =
4
ae DICOTYLEDONS | 47
Aconite could be taken for that of Horse-radish, if
even the slightest attention had been paid to the
root when dug up. But this was precisely what
was wanting.
COLUMBINE (Aguzlegia vulgaris).—This has true
compound leaves. The segments of a divided leaf
when perfectly free from each other, give rise to a
compound leaf. Such is the casein the Traveller’s
Joy and the Columbine. The flowers have five ‘
coloured sepals and five petals, each being prolonged
into a*honey-secreting spur. It has numerous
stamens, and five carpels which become many-
seeded follicles.
The name is derived from Coluimba, a dove ; for
_ the flower has some resemblance to five little :
birds putting their beaks together, the sepals
forming the wings.
Like the Aconite, this is not common wild; but
1 The following are Dr. Tanner’s remedies for poisoning
by Aconzte :—In addition to emetics, castor-oil, and animal ;
charcoal, benefit may be derived from administering strong wae
coffee. Brandy or ammonia should also be given, while :
the limbs and back are well rubbed with hot towels. Artifi-
cial respiration might prove useful. » Se
Dr. Brunton adds :—Spirits ; ammonia ; warmth ; digita- %
lis ; atropine.
Mr. Blyth’s treatment for poisoning by Aconzte.—In the
absence of a physician, for whom his directions are especially
# - given, the only item which an attendant to the patient can
apply, would be an emetic; he suggests sulphate of zinc,
__ and to keep the patient in a recumbent position.
| ee RN SE Fo A ee ere en Oo Fy ed oe tee ee
48 POISONOUS PLANTS
it has long been grown asea garden plant. The
whole plant is harmful, but the seeds are the most
dangerous. Linnzus states that a tincture made
from the flowers, when given internally to children,
has proved fatal.
LARKSPUR (Delphinium, sp.)—This is not
common wild, though it occurs as a cornfield weed
about Cambridge, in Sussex, etc. Several species
are cultivated as garden plants.
Two species are recognized as more or less wild,
one called D. Consolida, as under the name “ Conso-
lida” it was used as a drug for healing or con-
solidating wounds. The other is called D. Azaczs,
because it has marks on the petals resembling
the letters AIAI. This is the one usually cultivated
as an annual in our gardens. .
Like the Aconite the Larkspur has a coteeas
calyx, one sepal being prolonged into the spur
behind, suggesting the English name. Within this
sepal are two petals also spurred, and secreting
honey, which is stored in the spur of the sepal.
The seeds of the Larkspurs are especially danger- _
ous; so that it should be carefully separated from _ “
wheat before grinding. They cause vomiting and
purging if eaten. Children should be warned
against putting any part of these plants into their
mouths,?
* Dr. Tanner recommends for poisoning by Stavesacre
(Delphinium staphisagria), a medicinal species of Lae aay ;
Lr ee 7 ie
- : . -
DICOTYLEDONS 49
BANEBERRY (Actea spicata)—This is a rare
British plant, only known wild in northern England.
It has large compound leaves; the leaflets three--
lobed and toothed. The flowering stem grows from
one to two feet high. The flowers very small, nearly
white. It has a calyx of four small petal-like
sepals, four very small petals, numerous stamens,
_and one carpel which becomes a berry, nearly black
in colour.
It is the berry which might attract children, but
it is very poisonous ; as well, indeed, as are all other
parts of the plant. Drying only partly destroys
the poisonous principle. However, it exhales. so
disagreeable an odour, that poisoning by it has
been extremely rare.
LOVE-IN-A-MIST, or DEVIL-IN-A-BUSH (WVigella
damascena), is an old-fashioned garden flower. It
has finely-divided leaves. The flower is solitary,
terminal, usually blue,surrounded bya finely-divided
leafy involucre forming the “ mist” or “bush.” The
ce sepals are five, coloured, and resemble petals. The
petals are small, and cleft, stamens many, and
_carpels varying in number from three to ten. Un-
like all other members of this family, the carpels
~ are coherent into a large capsule. The seeds are
fs"
CES 5
black, and have: given the name from the Latin word
zi - —emetics, linseed-tea, or gum-water, or gruel copiously
administered. The warm bath will afford great relief. Oe
a ag be avoided.
as 35 D
ES Sees Pe ey Se, OE Es oes
‘ She tn 4 ° he . é > <
50 POISONOUS PLANTS
niger. ‘These seeds have a certain piquant and
acrid flavour. They are the “ fitches” of Scripture,
and are still used in Germany and the East for
seasoning dishes, or cakes, on which they are
sprinkled, as we do with caraway-seeds.
The remaining and less common members of the
Buttercup family (Ranunculacee), whether wild or —
cultivated, are all more or less poisonous, so that
it will not be necessary to add further remarks,
except to warn parents and guardians, and all who
have the charge of children, to see that they never
put anything growing wild in their mouths, nor
anything cultivated in the flower-garden.
Poppy FAMILY (Papaverace@).—We have four
indigenous poppies, and the Opium poppy as an
occasionalescape(Fig. 13). They are cornfield weeds
with rough, divided leaves and scarlet flowers.
The calyx has only two sepals, which fall off as the
bud opens; four free petals, numerous stamens
with purple-black anthers, and a pistil of several —
coherent carpels. There is no style,so that the
crown-like stigma rests on the ovary; which, when
ripened into a capsule, bursts by pores at the
summit, under the edges of the stigmatic crown.
They are all characterized by having a milky
juice, which when coagulated constitutes crude —
opium. It is acrid and narcotic.
OpIuM Poppy (Papaver somniferum). —Unlike
the wild poppies, this has a smooth stem and foliage,
DICOTYLEDONS 51
It has been in cultivation for many centuries.
Gerarde figures both single and double kinds in his
Flerball, 1597. It is believed to be a cultivated
variety of the S. European species, P. setigerum.
_ Dr. Hogg gives the following account of the
extraction of opium. He says the manner in which
Fig. 13. Papaver somniferum ; Opium Poppy.
opium is obtained is still the same as that practised
in the East centuries before the time of our
Saviour. A few days after the fall of the flower,
" men and women proceed to the fields at sunset,
and make horizontal incisions in the poppy-heads,
1 The “gall” of Scripture, a translation of Rosh, meaning —
Oe “head, ze appears to have been opium.
52 POISONOUS PLANTS
or capsules, when still unripe, taking care not to cut
so deep as to penetrate their cavity. The white
juice exudes, and appears in the form of tears, on
the edges of the incisions; and the night dews
favour the exudation of the juice. The field is
left in this state for twenty-four hours, after which
the juice is scraped off with a small iron scoop or
a blunt knife. The operation is never performed
more than once on each head. The inspissated
juice is then formed into cakes, ready for the ©
market.
The petals contain the milky juice, so should not
be put in the mouth. The seeds, of which there
are two kinds, white-skinned, and dark or black-
skinned, contain much oil, and have no, or at least
a very small trace of opium. They are eaten in —
some parts of Europe, being made into cakes or
strewed upon bread, or in sugar. It is said that.
the ancients rolled them up in their bread to excite
an appetite. Virgil speaks of the poppy as cereale
papaver, probably as the wild form (P. setigerum)
isa cornfield plant. Ceres is always represented
as crowned with poppies. Poppy-seed is also given —
to singing-birds, as “ Maw-seed” when they are
moulting. The cake after the oil is expressed is te
a food for cattle. In 1700, when the olive crop _
failed, poppy-seed oil was found to be a good sub-
stitute. The seeds are usually regarded as quite
harmless ; but there is little doubt that they do —
“
Ba oe
i
DICOTYLEDONS 53
' contain a certain amount of opium, for cases have
been recorded of poisoning by the seeds only of
the poppy.
The most harmful application of opium is for
intoxicating purposes ; as by orientals in smoking
it; but the terrible abuse of morphine (contained
in opium) is the practice of taking hypodermic
injections, and is quite as bad.
Laudanum, as prepared from opium, is, of course,
a most deadly drug, and can only be used with the
greatest caution.
There are, unfortunately, several ways in which
mothers are accustomed to quiet their infants ; as
”» “
by “cordials,” “soothing syrups,’ decoctions of
poppy-heads, etc. all of which contain a certain
amount of stupefying opium, and have frequently
proved fatal. “ Poppy-heads,” or the dried capsules,
retain the poisonous principle, and numerous cases
are on record of infants dying from the adminis-
tration of an infusion made from them by their
_ parents, who are, of course, totally ignorant of the
_ strength of the infusion given. Thus, one or two
teaspoonfuls of the water in which a poppy-head
had been boiled, proved fatal to two children in
eight hours. .
“Syrup of Poppies” as sold by the chemists is
equally dangerous, It is believed to be a mixture
_ of the tincture or infusion of opium with simple
syrup, and, as Dr. Taylor observes, is of variable
a)
54 POISONOUS PLANTS
strength, which accounts for children being poisoned
by what was supposed to be a legitimate medicinal
dose. Mr. Blyth records among the number of
deaths by poisoning during the ten years ending
1892, no less than 1379 by opium, including lauda-
num, morphia, etc, and 45 by mixtures called
Soothing Syrup, Paregoric, etc.
FIELD Poppy (2. Rh@as).—We have four wild
species of poppy, all with red flowers, and easily
recognized ; they all contain the same milky juice,
and their smell and taste is so disagreeable that
cattle refuse them. They have, however, been
occasionally injured by eating unripe poppy-heads
when the plant was mixed with clover and sainfoin.
The only use of the wild poppy is for the colour-
ing matter in the petals. Theocritus records a
custom among young Greeks, who took the petals
probably folded into a little bag, as boys do with
rose-leaves now, and holding it between the finger
and thumb of the left hand, gave it a sharp tap
with the palm of the right hand. If it cracked, it
was a proof that their sweetheart loved them. In
his third /dyllium the goat-herd tells Amaryllis
that his “telephion,” as he calls it, would not crack!
1 As antidotes to poisoning by Morphia, Mr. L. Brunton Ie
gives the following :—Warm coffee after the stomach is
emptied. Ammonia. Arouse by flicking with a towel, or by a
galvanic battery, and keep awake by walking about and
renewal of stimulation if necessary; two to four mins. liq.
i * al
“DICOTYLEDONS =
HORNED Poppy (Glaucium luteum).—This is a
handsome plant, common on our sea-shores, with
large yellow flowers and juicy, bluish-green leaves,
and very long pods suggesting the name.
atropiz subcutaneously. Artificial respiration if necessary.
Dr. Tanner adds the following recommendation :—All the
poison must be removed if possible by the stomach-pump.
In the absence of this instrument, emetics of half-a-drachm
of sulphate of zinc, or a table-spoonful of mustard, must be
employed. Zhe patient must be prevented from going to
sleep; as by dashing cold water over his head and chest,
walking up and down between two persons in the open air,
electro-magnetic shocks to the spine, and administering
strong coffee.
For poisoning by Opium, Morphine, Laudanum, etc., Mr.
Blyth writes as follows :—If taken by the mouth, give at once
a solution of potassium permanganate, and then empty the
stomach by the pump; but, if it have been taken by hypo-
dermic injection, both these would be useless. The stomach
in opium-poisoning is best relieved by the pump or tube, and
should then be well washed out with hot coffee, leaving in
the organ a pint or more. If the stomach-pump be not at
hand, a dose of mustard or zinc sulphate may be given ; but
there may be a difficulty in obtaining vomiting from any
emetic.
Attempt‘to rouse the patient by the battery, if at hand, by
flips with the towel, and by shaking.
The usual direction given is to make the patient walk
about ; but this treatment is questionable, and likely to.
favour the toxic action of morphine on the heart. :
Ammonia may be applied to the nostrils. Hot coffee
introduced by anenema. Thealternate cold and hot douche
to the head is good, but the body should be kept warm with
hot wraps. If necessary apply artificial respiration.
re ’ 2 : os -
56 POISONOUS PLANTS
Nothing is known of any injurious effects having |
taken place; but they would probably be much
the same as in the following.
CELANDINE (Chelidonium mazus, Fig. 14).—This
Fig. 14. Chelidonium majus ; Celandine. es.
is common in hedges about villages, and in stony _
4 places. It has much-divided leaves, small four- :
petalled yellow flowers and long pods; the seeds f
xs having a small crest-like appendage. : ; te f
a 3 Having been an old medicinal drug-plant of the | 2 ;
DICOTYLEDONS 57
- Middle Ages, it was probably introduced and has
become a naturalized plant in Britain.
It exhales a disagreeable odour. The acrid juice
is still used in the country as a cure for warts and
parasites ; or as an emetic and purgative, but not
without harmful results; for it acts as a strong
irritant, not only to the external skin, but especi-
ally upon the intestinal digestive organs, producing |
nausea and dysentery. It is in fact a “drastic
purgative.” A peculiarity lies in the fact that the
poisonous principle remains long in the system ; so
that domestic animals poisoned by it should not
be eaten.
The plant used to be called Swallow-wort ; “ not,”
as Gerarde wrote in his Herball (1597), “ because it
’ first springeth at the coming in of the swallows, or
dieth when they go away—for it may be found
all the year ; but because some hold opinion, that
with this herb the dams restore sight to their young
ones when their eyes be out; which things are.
vain and false.”
The VIOLET FAMILY (Vzolacee), VIOLET
(Viola, sp.).—Seven species represent this family
in Britain.
SWEET VIOLET (V. odorata).—The flowers are —
dried and crystallized in sugar; but are also used
_ medicinally as a “pectoral.” The seeds and under-
_ ground stem or rhizome are poisonous. If taken
_ internally these parts incite nausea and great ~
-
58 POISONOUS PLANTS © F
vomiting and nervous affections. This is due to
an alkaloid with pronounced emetic qualities. The
sweet scent of the flowers is correlated with dele-
terious principles in the stem, for these are greatly
reduced in the scentless species of Vzola, including
the Pansy. This is used in America in the form
of an ointment, and internally for bronchitis.
The seeds are injurious, being sometimes pre-
scribed as a purgative.
A foreign genus /ouxzdium, has the same prin-
ciples as /pecacuanha, which belongs to the Gakum,
or Coffee Family.
PINK FAMILY (Caryophyllacee).—This large
family includes all the pinks and carnations,
catchflies, stitchwort, as well as numerous little
humble weeds with inconspicuous flowers, as chick-
weed, spurry, sandworts, etc. It is generally
credited as being perfectly innocuous, but three
plants call for attention.
CORN-COCKLE (Agvrostemma Githago, Fig. 15).— -
This is a common cornfield weed, a tall and erect
annual, with opposite pairs of long narrow leaves,
The flowers have long peduncles. The calyx has
its sepals coherent with long leaf-like terminations.
The five petals are free, with tapering stalks, called
“claws.” There are ten stamens. There is a short
space or internode between the insertion of the
calyx and the rest of the flower. The pistil consists
of five carpels, of which the ovaries are coherent,
‘DICOTYLEDONS 59
but not the styles and stigmas (see the figure).
The fruit is a capsule opening by five teeth, and
- has numerous dark-coloured seeds.
As the seeds are shed simultaneously with the
corn, they are apt to communicate injurious pro-
Fig. 15. Agrostemma Githago ; Corn-cockle.
= perties to the flour. They have no scent, but are
bitter to the taste.
_ As the seed-skin is black, and when ground up
_ the fragments remain, the presence of the seeds
can be thereby detected. Moreover the starch
- grains are exceedingly small as compared with
Lin oS
¢ ae
60 POISONOUS PLANTS
the round grains of starch of wheat. As the black ~
fragments are removed by fine sifting or bolting,
the flour should be carefully examined, before
grinding. But it imparts a greyish tint and dis-
agreeable odour, even to bread when_ baked.
Again, the fine-grained starch does not so readily
give the blue or violet colour with iodine. This
test has been used with success, as also to
estimate the quantity of the deleterious grain
present. There are also several other useful
tests. ; 3
‘No animal will eat the plant, and all mishaps
recorded resulted from the seeds in bread as far
as man is concerned, for the heat of baking does
not destroy the injurious quality.
Accidents with animals have occurred by fonds
ing them with the so-called “thirds” and siftings.
No less than forty-five per cent. of the meal of corn-
cockle has been found in fraudulent food for cattle — i,
on the Continent. Two and a half per thousand in
weight is sufficient to kill a calf and a fowl, but
only one per thousand a pig.! The active principle
acts as an irritant, and with local inflammation, —
giving rise to diarrhoea within, and, if injected
hypodermically, serious inflammation. A substance —
of the same nature as that of the Soapwort and sae
1 Cornevin’s system is to calculate the number of grammes ‘t
of the poison, and one thousand (or one kilogram of we se
live animal’s weight.
DICOTYLEDONS 61
called Sapfonzne occurs, but this is not the toxic
substance (not yet traced). At all events it is a
plant which no cultivator should allow among or
near his cornfields, and the grains should be care-
fully separated before threshing and grinding the
corn.
SOAPWORT (Saponaria officinalis)—This plant
was used as a drug in the Middle Ages, and was
naturalized before the close of the sixteenth century.
The name is derived from the fact that if the root
and flowers be rubbed in water they make a lather,
and these were used as a substitute for soap in
former days. As a drug it was one of the fifty-one
ingredients of “save,” a drink for broken bones,
mentioned by Chaucer. A case of ill effects of the
use of a decoction of the roots has been recorded.
_ The principle is called Saponine, and is found in
other plants of different families. It constitutes
thirty-four per cent. of the dried root. It has a_
sweetish taste, but is acrid to the mouth.
A foreign plant of this family, Gypsophila Stru-
thium, possesses the same properties, and is used
in Spain for scouring instead of soap.
__ LESSER STITCHWORT (Stellaria graminea),—
This is a slender herb with quadrangular stems,
and narrow, pointed leaves, It looks like a small
form of the Great Stitchwort (S. Holostea) so
common in our hedges, with white, star-like
flowers. They both have five petals, but being
— =. © =
-_ 7
ee a RSS A Se ae een? Cen ee
y OO OE a a aE De
- . = 7 ae ee ieee,
" ’ + a . =
= bd y — -
- ws
Xz.
62 POISONOUS PLANTS
deeply notched, they appear to have ten in each
flower.
This species has been proved to be very injurious,
especially to horses on the Continent, and probably
also to cattle. The motion of animals which had
eaten it in fresh hay was awkward, their hinder —
parts weak. There was fever, sweating, redness
of the eyelids, a stupefied condition, with inability
to stand or walk. The treatment adopted consisted
in changing the food, cold applications to the head,
and the administration of saltpetre internally.
The poisonous effects appear to have been very
great in the South Russian steppes. Of a drove
of oxen fed on hay containing this Stitchwort, all
were affected with colic, and seven died. Out of
three hundred artillery horses during the Crimean _
War, which were fed on hay containing it, no —
less than seventy fell during the first twenty-
four hours. Many other cases of poisoning are
known.
It is supposed that the injurious effect is due to
a
a narcotic property which, in about six months ~ *
after drying in hay, appears to lose its effect.
Whether this common English plant is as poi-
sonous as the Russian one, which is a variety of —
S. graminea, known as hzppoctona, it is impossible ©
to say; but as no complaints by English farmers _
have been made, it may be free fromthe poisonous _
principle, as is often the case with plants growing
a ‘
OS eo eee
a ai hy J re
5% he
“ap
wie. ‘
3 yt ews os >
eae
rg”
DICOTYLEDONS 63
in more northern regions, compared with the same
species in South Europe.!
WOOD-SORREL FAMILY (Oxalidacee), Woop-
SORREL (Oxralis Acetosella, Fig. 16). This little
plant occurs in our woods, etc. It has a creeping
stem, knotted with thick-
ened bases of the leaf-~
stalks, which contain
much starch as reserve-
food. It has trifoliate
leaves, and “sleeps” by
dropping the three leaflets
vertically, at night, slight-
ly folding them, so that
the underside of their
midribs meet against the
petiole. It hastwo kinds
of flowers, perfect and ;
nd cleistogamous.” The Fig. 16. Oxalis Acetosella ; Wood-
flowers have five free ee
- sepals ; five free, white petals and ten stamens; five
having longer filaments than the other five (see
figure). The pistil has five carpels, the ovaries
being coherent, but the styles are free.
1 The above facts are taken from a paper by Dr. T. Spencer
_ Cobbold in the Veterinarian, 1880.
2 Sometimes regarded asa tribe of the Geranium Family
_ (Geraniacee). |
3 Self-fertilizing in bud, by “concealed union,” as the
word means., ;
ar 6 2
ee
2s ‘
64 POISONOUS PLANTS
The Wood-sorrel was formerly called “ Alleluya _
and Cuckowe’s-meat, because,” as Gerarde says,
“When it springeth foorth the cuckowe singeth
most ; at which time also Alleluya was woont to
be sung in our churches.” Alleluia, however, is
really only a corruption of the Calabrian name, |
Juliola.
The plant has a pleasant acid taste, and is
consequently used in salads as the Common
Sorrel.
Linnzus tells us that it was so plentiful in Lap-
land, that the inhabitants there use scarcely any
other vegetable than this and Angelica.
The juice will remove ink-spots in consequence
of the binoxalate of potash that it contains; sold
under the names of “ Salt of Scrrel” and “ Essen- ©
tial Salt of Lemons,” names which sound harmless
enough ; but the latter, at least, is very misleading,
for it is really a dangerous poison. It has been
taken in mistake for bitartrate of potash, or cream ~
of tartar. | Ske
ww Ss
1 Dr. Tanner prescribes the following treatment forpoison-
ing by Sorrel, Wood-Sorrel,or Oxalic Acid. Chalk, whiting, —__
or magnesia, suspended in water or in some demulcent fluid, * —
must be administered immediately ; and, if necessary, —
vomiting should be excited by tickling the fauces, or
administering emetics of mustard or sulphate of zinc, ete,
followed by large quantities of emollient drinks. Theanti-
dote, to be effective, must be given as soon as possible; the =»
plaster of the apartment being used in the absence of the =
DICOTYLEDONS 65
remedies just mentioned. When there are symptoms of
collapse, stimulants are to be freely employed.
As it is most important to be able to distinguish the above-
mentioned two substances, I copy the following from Dr.
Taylors work :—Cream of tartar is known by its diluted
solution not being precipitated by the sulphate in any salt
of lime; and by its being rendered only milky or turbid on
the addition of nitrate of silver.
Lime-water furnishes a ready means of distinguishing
these two salts. It precipitates both of them wzte; but
the precipitate from the bitartrate of potash is redissolved on
adding to it a small quantity of a solution of tartaric acid;
while that from the binoxalate is zot redissolved.
Ink-stains, if made from oak-galls, are removed by salts of
lemon ; but not by bitartrate of potash.
For treatment of poisoning by Oxalic Acid, Binoxalate of
Potash, or Sodic Oxalate, Mr. Blyth says : Unless the patient
has already vomited freely, empty the stomach at once by
emetics of zinc sulphate or mustard; or the stomach-pump
or tube may, in most cases, be used. Ifthe acéd has been
taken, neutralize by chalk, lime-water, or, better, by sacchar-
ated lime-water ; but 07” xo account neutralize by carbonate
of soda or any alkali; forthe alkaline oxalates are extremely
poisonous.
Give plenty of water to assist elimination by the kidneys :
and apply hot fomentations tothe loins, _
_ An enema may be given, if necessary.
DIVISION II
PETALS, FREE; FLOWER WITH A RECEPTACULAR ©
EXPANSION
SPINDLE-TREE FAMILY (Cé/astrace@).—Wehave __
only one representative of this family in Great
Britain. as
SPINDLE-TREE (Euonymus europaeus, Fig. pee i.
This is a smooth-leaved shrub, the leaves being _ d
very shortly stalked, opposite in pairs, with minute Ae
teeth on the margin. The flowers are in loose ee
clusters, each flower being scarcely half-an-inch | Bas
across. The four sepals are very minute, the Lone ;
petals are green, arising from below a fleshy dish 3
which surrounds the flower, uniting the parts more ~
or less together. The fruit is three or more lobed,
are visible. These are dhe parts which fer
children, but are very. injurious. ere o> .
The common Spindle-tree received its nam ae
from its wood having besa made into spindles :
~~
Mae. bs ee se
; - PICOTYLEDONS 67
was also called Prick-wood from being used for
_ skewers.
W ii
| 4 NN ox
B\.
Fig. 17. Euonymus europzus; Spindle-tree (in flower).
os It is the berries which are really harmful, for
68 POISONOUS PLANTS
they are emetic and purgative and have proved
fatal to sheep.
The bark, leaves, and fruit are all injurious ; for
children have been made to suffer by eating the
violently purgative fruit.
Fig. 17*. Euonymus europzus; Spindle-tree fia fruit).
Although the tree has a sufficiently pronounced —
odour, goats and sheep which have browsed uper : a
the leaves have suffered. oe =
A species from South Europe and another frat 2:
Japan are cultivated ; so that children shoul? be
: DICOTYLEDONS ~ 69
warned against eating! the very attractive-look-
ing fruit and seeds.
BUCKTHORN FAMILY (Rhamnacee). — Two
species of a single genus, RAamnus, represent this
family in Great Britain.
COMMON BUCKTHORN (Rhamnus catharticus,
Fig. 18)—This is a shrub or small tree, with ob-
ovate,? minutely-toothed
leaves. The flowers are SX
very small, in axillary
clusters, dicecious, 2.é.
male on one tree and
female on another.
‘There is a receptacular
tube with the sepals,
petals, and stamens on
the margin; the petals
being zz front of the
sepals. The pistil, free
within the tube, has the <
eacpels~ coherent, ‘from ©. Pie: 16. Rhamnus catharticus.;
ovary to stigmas.
The whorls vary from fours to fives in the |
numbers of their parts. | NE
The fruit is a small berry, ultimately black,
about the size of a pea.
1 For poisoning by ZLuvonymus, Mr. Blyth recommends “3
the same treatment as for Yoxglove or Digitalis, p. 138. Se
2 A leaf is ovate (¢.e. egg-shaped) if the broad end is ee.
bese below ; obovate, if it be reversed. Wao
70 POISONOUS PLANTS Agi
The berries, which are black, are purgative, as.
the above name implies. They have been used for
colouring wine, but at the same time they render
it harmful. |
ALDER BUCKTHORN (R. Frangula)3—It has
been found that the berries of this second species
appear to exceed those of the first in super-
purgation; for a small boy who ate them suffered
from headache, vertigo, unconsciousness, convul-
sions of the extremities, face, etc.; sufficiently
alarming as a warning against eating the berries.
An important use of the berries of different
species is for dyeing. Thus the juice of those of ©
R. catharticus when unripe yields a saffron colour ; —
but when ripe they supply the “sap-green”
of painters. The berries of a foreign species,
R. infectorius, called Graines d Avignon,or“ French
berries,” give a rich yellow colour. Those of our ae
British species, R. Frangula, when unripe,dye wool
both yellow and green, but when ripe both bee =
and green. ate
One foreign species known as “ Cascara Sagrada” ae
(R. Purshianus) is used in medicine; but all species
of Buckthorn are purgative. eis
PEA FAMILY (Leguminose).—This is a very
large family, but all our British plants are easily Ree:
known by the peculiar form of the flower. They 3 : ae
1 This species has entire leaves, z.¢. without a toothed — sa
margin ; and flowers with both stamens and pistil. x
DICOTYLEDONS 7 71
all belong to one tribe, called Papzlionacee, from
the imaginary likeness to a butterfly (Papz/zo, in
Latin). |
Though it is a family which supplies us with
many useful foods, as peas, beans, haricots, lentils,
etc.; as well as clovers, sainfoin, melilots, lucerne,
etc., for horses and cattle; yet several plants are
very poisonous, and should be carefully noted, and
children warned, as usual, never to put flowers,
fruits, or seeds into their mouths, especially those
of the Laburnum, which belongs to this family.
BROOM (Cytisus scoparius)—This plant is too
familiar to need much description. It may be
taken as a type of our British plants of this order.
It has a calyx of five sepals, but coherent forming
two lobes, on which three minute teeth can be
detected in front and two behind. There are five
petals, the large one at the back being called the
“standard,” the two at the sides being the “ wings,”
and two in front, coherent along the. lower edges
so as to form a boat-shaped structure, are called
the “keel.” There are ten stamens, all being
coherent into a tube by their filaments. They
surround the pistil composed of a single carpel,
3 _ which forms the pod. The receptacle has spread
out horizontally ; and in most other leguminous
plants secretes honey within the staminal tube. To
enable the bees and other insects to reach it, the
uppermost stamen is left free, allowing a passage —
72 POISONOUS PLANTS
into the interior; as may be easily seen in the
pea and bean, etc.
Broom-tops are used in medicine, as they contain
certain principles, one of which when obtained
pure by the chemist is called spartezne, and is very
poisonous and narcotic.
It is said that shepherds are well acquainted
with the narcotic properties of the broom ; having
observed that sheep become at first excited and
then stupefied after eating it.
The seeds have similar properties to broom-
tops.
LABURNUM (C. Laburnum).—trThis is certainly
one of the most poisonous of all trees cultivated in
gardens. Children have repeatedly picked out the
unripe seeds and eaten them, or masticated the
green pods. Again, a boys’ school, once finding
laburnum trees thrown away, chewed the roots on
discovering that they possessed a flavour of liquor-
ice ; but although fatal results do not seem to have
followed on that occasion, the sufferers were made
seriously ill with all the symptoms of narcotic
poisoning.
Indeed, all parts of the tree are harmful: roots,
bark, wood, leaves, flower-buds, petals, pods, and
seeds. No part can be put in the mouth without
risk.
Drying has no influence upon the poisonous
property, as it is not volatile. Even boiling the
DICOTYLEDONS 73
seeds for two hours did not altogether remove the
toxic principle; so that they cannot be used in any
way as food for animals.
Children carrying bunches of the flowers of
laburnum should be warned against putting them
in their mouths ; and cooks against using them in
culinary operations, instead of the false acacia;
and even that tree has deleterious properties. A
case is recorded of some pieces of bark being put
into soup, which induced a protracted illness, last-
ing twelve months, in a person who partook of the
soup. Several children, having eaten the green
’ pods and seeds, were dangerously ill; as also was
a child, between three and four years of age, who
ate twelve flowers. But after an emetic, it
recovered.!
Though the seeds are violently purgative, emetic,
and decidedly poisonous, it is said rabbits and
hares are particularly fond of the tree, which they
are apt to injure seriously by gnawing the bark.
In some places the seeds are sown in plantations,
1 Dr. Tanner recommends for poisoning by Laburnum,
emetics, castor-oil, and stimulants. Cold affusion will often
be useful, more especially if there be much stupor.
_ For poisoning by Ladurnum seeds, etc., Mr. Blyth recom-
mends emptying the stomach by the pump. Wash it out with
tea or coffee ; or give as an emetic, mustard or sulphate of
zinc. Follow up this treatment by an enema or brisk purga-
tive. Stimulants may be given; the patient may be roused
yas __ by hot or cold douche. Similarly for Broom.
~
‘3
74 POISONOUS PLANTS
_ because these animals will not injure other trees if
they can get a supply of laburnum; and though ~
they may eat them to the ground, thes! will spring |
up again next season, and so »_ yield a regular
supply of winter food.
On the other hand, scme rabbits which ate some
bark died in three minutes in tetanic convulsions,
according to Dr. Taylor’s account. One can only
account for these results by different effects of
—
climate ; the hotter the country, vegetable poisons ©
are the more strongly developed.
SCARLET RUNNER (Phaseolus vulgaris, “var.
multifiorus)— Though this plant supplies us with
an excellent and highly nourishing food material,
yet experience has proved that sheep are the only
animals which ever eat it as green food, or the
seeds of Haricots when soaked. It appears to con-
tain some deleterious property, which especially
resides in the roots, which have, indeed, been
described as poisonous.
Wistaria sinensis is a familiar climber, with ra-
cemes of mauve-coloured flowers, appearing before —
the leaves. Children have suffered with severe sick- __
ness, vertigo, and nervous disorders from masti-
cating the flowers of this plant. —The symptoms are
analogous, if not more or less identical, with those
which ensue from eating laburnum seeds.
SCORPION SENNA-TREE (Coronilla Emerus), C.
varia, ctc., from Europe.—It has pinnate leaves Sof |
7 oe
“d Pt we + no
‘ A, ee 7 Cad ‘ =
ity, ee 8 ee a ee
~
DICOTYLEDONS 75
‘about seven to nine pairs of leaflets. The flowers
are in umbels. The leaves are purgative, contain-
ing the same principle as the Cyzzsus.
SPANISH BROOM (Sfartium junceum) has long
been cultivated as a garden plant. The stems are
usually leafless, bearing large, yellow, fragrant
flowers. Though used as a forage-plant in Lan-
geuedoc, it has been found that animals, after
browsing upon the young shoots in spring, have —
suffered somewhat. A similar affection has followed
their eating the buds of the oak.
_ LUPIN (Lupinus, sp.)—Lupins are easily known
by their digitate leaves and long spikes of blue,
lilac, yellow or white flowers.
Of this genus, one species (L. albus) was culti-
vated by the ancients for its seeds as food, both
by Greeks and Egyptians; and they are still used
in Andalusia, Corsica, and Piedmont.
A lupin with blue flowers is cultivated in France
for the nourishment of sheep; but another, a dwarf
species, native of the Mediterranean regions, is a
yellowed-flowered one (L. /uteus). It has also
fragrant flowers. It is often eaten by animals,
being less bitter than the white-flowered lupin.
However, in Germany it has been so troublesome
in causing a complaint, that this has been called
“lupinose.” It began in 1860, on sheep; in 1880, ©
of 240,000, 14,138 died of it. Though sheep were
~
-~
ropa es . Sc o3 ; ra re None SY ‘ we
te ee fee ee ee ait ewes ee Breer i ak fs ae
Rk Feat th Si a ote Pi ke Oe eee a .
- fo |
os rie
- St, “eet,
7 + i
Fhe ir bok ia
Ar uv.
a \,
Wig
a?
sors
tS) ae & ed. Ge
Fn gh Ae TE ONS EE I
€
Pl
ne
eae
76 _ POISONOUS PLANTS
principally affected, the goat, ox, horse, dog, and
rabbit did not escape, nor did a man, after con-
suming the seeds of the yellow lupin.
When animals are fed nearly exclusively on this
lupin and straw, the malady is particularly intense ;
whereas it is beneficial if it be combined with hay
or beetroot in certain proportions.
The lupin appears to become inoffensive when
mixed with other herbage in “ silo,’ as acetic fer-
mentation takes place, and the injurious principle
is dissipated. :
But, on the other hand, some toxic principles
are developed and accumulated in the topmost
layers. Hence caution is necessary, in using this
food, to remove these layers.
Children, who are so fond of picking out and
eating unripe leguminous seeds, should be warned
against doing so, not only with the laburnum
and yellow lupin, but in the case of a// other kinds
as well. |
YELLOW VETCHLING (Lathyrus Aphaca, Fig.
19).—A cornfield weed, from the midland counties
southwards, not common here, but frequent in
South Europe, is our only British leguminous plant,
unless we except the Broom, which is recognized
as poisonous. It is remarkable for having no —
leaves, a pair of spear-shaped stipules doing duty
for them, while a long slender tendril replaces the
DICOTYLEDONS We
leaf. It bears a single small yellow flower at
each node. People have suffered from violent
headaches and vomiting after having eaten the
seeds.
~ Three foreign species of Vetchling, ZL. satzvus, L.
Crcera, and L. Clymenum, have caused an epidemic
malady in Spain, Italy,
and Africa, where the
seeds have been eaten ;
but in this country it has
been with horses only that
mischievous effects have
resulted from the intro-
duction of — so-called
“Indian peas,” which
proved fatal to several.
This was experienced by
the Bristol Tramways
Company in 1894.
Locust: REE, or
FALSE ACACIA (Robinia Fig. 19. Latent Aohaca Yellow
Pseud-acacia).—This tree
is a very familiar one in gardens, having pinnate
leaves and racemes of white flowers resembling
in form those of the laburnum. It contains a _—
poisonous principle in the leaves and bark. A
Chinese woman is reported to have been very ill
after eating the leaves ; but she recovered.
The ROSE FAMILY (Rosace@).— Though we
\
78 POISONOUS PLANTS
have valuable fruits from this family, such as
plums, raspberry, strawberry, pears and apples, the
first-mentioned belong to a genus of which some
species produce prussic acid. Not that thispoison
exists in the plant, such as the bitter almond ; but. —
this fruit contains two principles called ‘‘ Amyg-
daline” and “Emulsine,” harmless in themselves —
when separate, but in the presence of water they
produce prussic acid. The Amygdaline appears to —
be confined to the cellular tissues of the embryo,
the Emulsine being in the traces of the fibro-
vascular cords.
It is chiefly the tribe Pruneg, which contains
the genus Amygdalus, the almond, and Prunus,
including all kinds of plums and cherries, that has
these substances which can give rise to prussic —
acid. It is the cherry-laurel, the common garden —
shrub, and the bitter almond with which we are
now only concerned.
ALMOND (Amygdalus communis) has produced
several varieties under cultivation. It is only the 4
variety, the so-called bitter almonds, in the use of
which some caution is necessary, especially with
regard to children; and the distilled water of
bitter almonds, or the essence, when used for. Te
flavouring bon-bons, etc. eae
Animals have been poisoned by having been
fed with oil-cake made from the refuse in the © =
manufacture of the oil of almonds, which itself
See as eee TS
4 “\ 5, . tw - as 7 * =
se ay 3.
>
_DICOTYLEDONS 79
is harmless, at least when quite pure and not
contaminated.
Two principles thus give the bitter almonds
their poisonous properties, the “essence” and
“prussic acid.” This is why bitter almonds and
ratafia biscuits should be only eaten sparingly.
Essential oil of Almonds, or Peach-nut oil,
which is produced by the distillation of the pulp
of bitter almonds with water, is a powerful poison,
and has caused numerous deaths, in consequence
of the presence of prussic acid, which is intimately
combined with it. Five pounds of almonds are
calculated to yield about half-an-ounce of the oil,
containing on the average ten per cent. of prussic
acid.
The liquid called “Almond Flavour,” spirit of
almonds, or essence of peach-kernels, is sold to
give a pleasant flavour to confectionery. It may
be as well to state, writes Dr. Taylor, from whose
work the preceding is copied, that one ounce of
this almond flavour is, at the lowest computation,
equivalent in strength to two hundred and fifty
_ grains of the pharmacopceial prussic acid, yet it is
entrusted in private families in the hands of ignorant
cooks to apportion the dose which may give the
requisite flavour to food !
_ Mr. Blyth, ina lecture on Old and Modern Poison
Lore, says:—“On an Egyptian papyrus are the
words, ‘ Pronounce not the name of I. A. O. under
80 | POISONOUS PLANTS
the penalty of the peach.’ As the Egyytians were
the first known to have practised distillation, this
referred to the formation of prussic acid. The
knowledge passed to the Romans, for a knight in
the reign of Tiberius, accused of high treason,
swallowed poison and fell down dead. No poison
but prussic acid, and that in a tolerably concen-
trated form, would have this effect.”
Dr. Tanner asserts that cases of alarming illness
have occurred from eating bitter almonds too freely ;
and that the essential oil obtained by distilling the
pulp of these almonds into water is a powerful
poison! The essence or o7/ of bitter almonds con- —
tains about ten per cent. of prussic acid ; and it is
probable that from ten to thirty drops would prove
1 Dr. Tanner suggests the following remedies :—Stimu-
lating frictions to the chest and abdomen, warmth to the
surface, and the application of ammonia to the nostrils. ;
Dr. Brunton. gives the following antidotes to poisoning
by Prussic Acid:— Alternate cold and warm effusions over
the head and neck, to cause a shock (Tanner). Artificial
respiration. Injection of atropine (two to four min, liquor
_ atropiz) repeated every half-hour. oe
For poisoning by Prussic Acid, or Bitter Almonds, etc.,
Mr. Blyth says :—Use the stomach-pump or tube; or if not
at hand, an emetic of mustard or sulphate of zinc.
If the breathing has stopped, try artificial respiration aa
weak shock to the heart.
A brandy enema may be given. The body must be kept
warm, but the cold douche may be advantageously applied:
to the head.
DICOTYLEDONS SI
fatal to an adult. Dr. Taylor records many fatal
cases from this poisonous oil.
CHERRY-LAUREL (Prunus Lauro-cerasus).—lIt is
the leaves of this common shrub which are danger-
ous, and more so in the autumn than in the spring.
It is in the south of Europe where the poison is
mostly if not only developed. The custom there
of flavouring milk with laurel-leaves has caused
injury to infants. More frequently has the distilled
laurel-water caused misfortunes when used _ un-
advisedly by ignorant practitioners.
Dr. Taylor says that laurel-water is a weak
solution of prussic acid, containing only about one-—
fourth of a grain per cent. of the strong acid, but it
is said to be more poisonous than this quantity of
acid would indicate. The leaves gathered in wet
and cold weather are said to yield more prussic
acid than those gathered in hot and dry weather.
It is a limpid, colourless liquid, producing in
large quantities the usual effects of poisoning by
prussic acid.
Dr. Taylor says that the late Dr. Paris stated
that several children were severely affected by
partaking of some custard flavoured with laurel-
leaves, and were ill for three days. Half a tea-
spoonful of a mixture consisting of four-fifths
cherry-laurel water, was given by mistake to an |
infant eight months old. It died in a few seconds.
_ Noyau and other liqueurs, as_ cherry-ratafia,
F
82 POISONOUS PLANTS
having the odour of bitter almonds, are to be
considered as poisonous when taken in considerable
quantity. :
Many animals have been poisoned on the
Continent by eating the leaves of the cherry-
laurel, both sheep and oxen, It is recorded that
a bull which had gained a prize (at Rovoretto in
Italy) was decorated with a garland of laurel; the
bull ate the garland and fell down poisoned on the
spot.
In England it appears to be much less, if at all,
harmful. The present writer’s cows completely
ruined a long laurel hedge adjoining the field in
which they lived; but this abnormal food did no —
harm either to themselves or the milk they
produced. This was at Ealing, near London.
The kernels of several members of the genus
Prunus, as Bird-cherry, Peach, Nectarine, Damson,
and Apricot, contain this poison. Thus a child, :
aged two, suffered severely in consequence of
having eaten ten or twelve kernels of the apricot; —
and a child, aged five, died from eating a large ©
quantity of. the kernels of Gean cherries (Prunus
Avium),
All the following plants yield, with spires
treatment, more or less prussic acid -—Amygdalus
communis, Prunus Lauro-cerasus, kernels of plum —
(P. domestica); bark, leaves, flowers and fruit al
the wild service-tree (P. Pais) ie of thang
_ bark and green parts of
_ Spirea yield no prussic |
ing is the only British
_ family :—
mao BRYONY (Bryonta
DICOTYLEDONS : 83
common cherry and apple; leaves of P. capriceda ;
bark of P. virginiana ; flowers and kernels of the
sloe (P. spinosa); leaves of P. (Cerasus) aceda ;
bark and almost all parts of Sorbus (Pyrus)
Aucuparia, hybrida, and torminalis; young twigs
of the hawthorn (Crategus Oxyacantha).
Leaves and partly also the flowers of the shrubby
species of Spzrea, as of S. Aruncus, S. sorbifolia,
and S. japonica ; but the
herbaceous species of ۩
acid,
MELON FAMILY (Cu-
_curbitacee).—The follow-
representative of this
large and important
Fig. 20. Bryonia dioica ; Bryony.
dioica, Fig. 20).—It is
_ dicecious, the male and female flowers being on
different plants. The roots are often of an immense
. .
-- size, sometimes nearly two feet long, thick as a man’s
arm, white, succulent, and fleshy, with an acrid,
: bitter, and disagreeable taste. It is occasionally
1 It is also known as White Bryony, Tetter-berries, Wild
_ Hops, Wild Vine, and Wild Nep ; the last being the medizval
84 POISONOUS PLANTS
offered for sale as the “mandrake,” with which it
has nothing to do; as the latter belongs to the
Potato Family. The Bryony root is cathartic,
sometimes emetic, and causes internal inflammation,
being highly irritant. Bruised and applied to the
skin, it is capable of producing blisters.
The foliage is the same in both, being of lees
and pointed rather rough leaves.
The plant supports itself by long thread-like
tendrils, which as soon as they have caught hold
of anything make a number of close coils, some
one way; some, about the same number, the other
way ; this is to avoid breaking under the strain.
The flowers are yellowish-green, the male being |
the larger. It consists of a coherent calyx, a
coherent corolla, and five stamens united in two
separate pairs and one single one. The anthers
are “sinuate,” that is taking the form of the letter §.
The female flower (on the right in the figure) is ©
at once recognized by its globular inferior ovary.
The corolla is rather smaller than that of the male
plant, and has the three stigmas in the middle;
each of them is bi-lobed. ok
The fruit is a scarlet berry. Entire families
have been poisoned from eating the root instead
of parsnip, and children from eating the berries.
F ifteen berries have been known to produce death =
Saati: when death ensued.
Rx
.
DICOTYLEDONS ~ 85
The large root contains a great quantity of
starch, which one could easily separate with cold
water, when the poisonous juice would beeliminated;
just as in preparing tapioca from the very poisonous
plant from which it is obtained.
It may be added that the fruit of all members of
this family contain in the wild state an active
principle which must be regarded as being more
or less poisonous; especially in the pulp. This is
the chief cause of disorders frequently produced
by cucumber, melon, etc., in certain habits and
constitutions. Under cultivation the principle is
so attenuated in the mass of watery cellular tissue
that they, of course, become perfectly harmless and
delicious fruits.
CARROT FAMILY (Umbeliifere)—This is a very
large family, showing great uniformity in the
structure of the flowers and fruits, as well as in
the foliage and roots ; ‘so that many mistakes have
s
se De
OS a i ee
RL SR io ae ee, Oe
been made by eating poisonous members of the
family for harmless ones, for although such plants
as the parsnip and carrot, as well as parsley
and fennel, are valuable kitchen herbs, others like
the Hemlock and Cowbane are notoriously of a
dangerous character. Hence it is most important
that their distinguishing features should be care-
1 Dr. Tanner recommends emetics to remove the poison of
Bryony, unless spontaneous vomiting has freely taken place.
If it has passed into the intestines castor-oil must be given.
they constitute the ‘ ‘general involucre.” Those at the base of —
86 POISONOUS PLANTS
fully noted. These are mainly to be found in the
foliage and fruits. To understand the latter, a
careful study of the figures here given, as well as
of the living plants themselves, should be made.
FOOL’S PARSLEY (thusa Cynapium, Fig. 21).—
Fig. 2x. A&thusa Cynapium ; Fool’s Parsley.
A small annual weed in gardens and cornfields. eer
It has white flowers, with Jong pendulous bracts
below them. The fruit has prominent, sharp-edged, a
corky ridges. ‘
“
1 When there are bracts at the base of the primary umbel —
the secondary umbels as in this plant form the “ paral Ree ss
involucre or involucel. ms
DICOTYLEDONS nay sis
The accompanying illustration will not only
illustrate the Fool’s Parsley, but explain the
structure of the flowers of all other members of
the Umbellifers, as there is great uniformity,
allowing for variations of detail.
All the Umbellifers are herbs, often with a thick
tap-root like the carrot and parsnip, which belong
to the family. The leaves rise from the ground
and also from the stem. They generally have
divided blades or compound leaves, and in some
species they are finely dissected, as of fennel.
The stalks more or less sheath the stem at the
base.
The flowers are clustered together on little
pedicels radiating from a terminal point of longer
stalks, which again radiate from the main stem.
This arrangement is called a compound umbel.
The structure of a flower is as follows, as given in
- Fig. 21. The complete flower has an_ inferior
ovary (Fig. 5 a). The five sepals, which should
lie under the five petals, are wanting, The petal
tips are inflected (Figs. 2, 3). Five stamens alter-—
nate with them. In the centre is seen a two-lobed
honey-disk with the two short styles arising between
them inthe middle. Hence the petals and stamens
appear to rise from the summit of the ovary; but
the reader will remember that this is explained by
the ovary being invested by an adherent recep-
tacular tube, which has carried the petals and —
88 POISONOUS PLANTS .
stamens up to the top. The honey-disk is
developed out of the top of the ovary.
When the petals and stamens have fallen off, the
inferior ovary ripens into a fruit (Fig. 5).1 This
now develops ridges (Figs. 6-10 a). It then splits
in half, that is to say the two carpels separate and
remain suspended on a V or Y shaped support
(Fig. 7). They finally break away and fall to the
ground. Each half (Figs. 7-9) contains one seed
(Fig. 11) full of endosperm, in which lies buried a
minute embryo (Fig. 11 a, 8).
This plant is considered to be less active than
*
the hemlock, nevertheless it has occasioned more —
accidents ; since, so often growing in gardens, its
leaves have been taken for parsley and eaten by
mistake. .
Animals refuse it, and birds which have eaten it
have died.
It can be distinguished from parsley not merely
by the want of the familiar odour of that plant,
but by the dark colour of the stem, especially the
lower part, and by its disagreeable smell when
bruised. Moreover, the colour of the flowers of
parsley are yellow, while those of the fool’s
1 The curved styles are not drawn accurately, they should
both arise from the middle (just below the num. 5), and the —
disks should be represented as two nearly flat semi-circular
cushions, extending outwards right and left, to the margins
of the ovary.
’
—
DICOTYLEDONS 89
parsley are white. Note also the pendulous
bracts.
The symptoms it produces on man are heat in
the mouth and throat, nausea and vomiting ; with
headache, giddiness, stupor, convulsions, and lock-
jaw. Convulsions and stupor occur in all animals
' poisoned by it.
No fatal case appears to be caused from the
fool’s parsley before 1845, when a little child
ate the roots, which resembled radishes. Sick-
ness and a tendency to lockjaw followed, death
terminating the seizure in an hour. The leaves
have been eaten in soup in the place of parsley |
with similar results, death in that case taking place
in twenty-four hours,
In the numerous cases of poisoning with this
plant, by far the majority were not fatal; but in
one case the root was boiled in soup under the
impression it was parsley. One child who partook
_of it died.
Other cases have proved that the root contains
a very energetic poison.
1 Dr. Tanner recommends emetics, castor-oil and stimu-
lants to be resorted to in poisoning by Fools Parsley. Cold
affusions will often be found useful, more especially if there
be much stupor. Another writer suggests after the poison
_ has been ejected, citric or some other vegetable acid should
be administered ; besides the celd affusions mentioned,
mustard poultices may be applied to the feet ; together with
small doses of sulphate of magnesia during the cure.
ges
wes €
fe so
90 POISONOUS PLANTS
It may be added that Dr. J. Harley maintains,
that having experimented on himself,on others,and
on animals with the expressed juice and with the
tincture, he found the effects to be entirely negative,
Some of the published cases he refers to Hemlock,
others to Aconite. }
vary greatly according to
climate and soil, it is
samples that were more
or less or quite harmless ;
just as bread has been
made to test the poisonous
properties of Darnel with
perfectly innocuous re-
sults. Again, he does’
not appear to have used —
the living plant itself,
It is safer, therefore,
Hemlock. tributed to this plant.
HEMLOCK (Conzum maculatum, Fig. 22). —This
is a tall biennial, growing from three to six feet, or : 2 =
more, It has a forked, pale yellow root. The stem
is erect, hollow, striated, perfectly smooth, bright
green, but mottled with stains or spots of a port- eds
wine colour, and covered with a “ bloom” which: is- eee:
Since, however, plants —
possible that he had
| | to believe what has been |
Fig. 22. Conium maculatum; otherwise universally at- 4
=
>
<%.
BT
DICOTYLEDONS OI
easily rubbed off. The leaves are large and
compound ; the segments being deeply cut. Each
“tooth” is tipped with a minute sharp white point.
The fruit has many ridges, as shown in the figure.
It is not uncommon in hedges and waste places;
and is easily recognized by the above characters,
especially the smooth spotted stem, as well as the
size of the plant and foliage.
The Hemlock was well known to the ancients as
poisonous ; and it was the juice of this plant, in all
probability, which Socrates was compelled to drink.
Like so many other poisonous plants—as the
Aconite, Cherry-laurel, etc, it is much more
injurious in the hotter countries of South Europe
than in the North. Before flowering, the poisonous
principle is principally in the foliage, but it
becomes less so when the plant is in fruit, as this
latter then acquires it, which is more active before
being ripe than afterwards.
When cut and dried, as in hay, the Hemlock loses
much of its poisonous properties, which are vola-
tile and easily dissipated. Cooking destroys it; so
Pliny observes that it was actually eaten in his day
when thus prepared as food.
Poisoning of human beings has apparently
mostly, if not always, resulted from errors in
administering the extract of Hemlock; for its dis-
agreeable odour has prevented its use as a vegetable
_intheraw state. This has been the cause of mishaps
\
nd
4
IC yeaa
patie
- . _oa is
NO: ee
PES ena wa . ‘
etre be aS to SS
0, ‘ A, a a
Ay tee Shah, psec od a sh
92 POISONOUS PLANTS
with other members of the family of Umbellifers.
Animals, too, have rarely been poisoned, as they
all refuse it. This has only occurred when mixed
with other herbage, and especially at spring-time,
when they eat with avidity anything green.
Some animals appear able to eat the Hemlock —
with impunity; thus larks and quails are said to do
so in Germany; but their flesh becomes so impreg-
nated with the poison, that carnivores which have
eaten them have died. On the other hand, ducks have
been poisoned by eating the fruits, though thrushes
have been observed to eat them with impunity. —
The Hemlock of South Europe is much more
energetic than that of more northern regions. Nar-
cotic effects are said to be felt by those who breathe
fora long time air impregnated with the effluvium.
That the poisonous property is not destroyed by
boiling is proved by a case of two soldiers who
collected herbs for boiling with bacon. They par-
took of the broth, and then of the herbs and bacon.
They died in about three hours.
1 Dr. Brunton gives as antidotes to poisoning by Hemlock—
Tannic acid, stimulants, and coffee.
Dr. Tanner adds :—Emetics, castor-oil ; cold affusion will
often be useful, more especially if there be much stupor.
For poisoning by Hemlock, Mr. Blyth recommends
-emetics of sulphate of zinc or mustard. Keep up the
temperature of the body by hot wraps. Administer strong tea,
or any harmless vegetable decoction containing tannin,
Stimulants may be given. If necessary, use artificial —
respiration.
/
involucre nor involucel.
DICOTYLEDONS 2: ge
CELERY (Apium graveolens).—The wild plant is
also called Smallage. It is acrid,and should not be
eaten ; but it loses all deleterious properties, or
rather does not develop them, when it is blanched
under cultivation. In Malta it is always used green
for flavouring soups, etc. The wild plant has a
very strong smell of
celery, and can often be
detected by the odour,
even at some distance
off. It is more com-
mon near the _ sea,
though it occurs byditches
inland. ;
It is a plant with no
very marked feature by
which it can be distin-
guished, except the fami-
liar smell of celery when
bruised, and its umbels
have neither a general Fig. Piper iat eat ic
WATER-HEMLOCK, or COWBANE (Cicuta virosa).
—This is a tall-growing plant, with long, narrow
serrated segments to the compound leaves. . The
flowers are white. There is no general involucre;
but an involucel of many bracts is present. The
fruit has five scarcely prominent ridges. It fre-
quents watery places, as marshes and ditches. It
SSS ee ee
5 to ae A Bed ere
= im, Pee
Pars is i a Tay
“ eae. ty ‘y
OS itt Fae
ee |
94. POISONOUS PLANTS
has a white, fleshy root, containing a yellow juice.
The stem is hollow. BESS
It is regarded as being the most poisonous of the
Umbellifers. The thick root has been the occasion
of fatal results when eaten instead of parsnip or
celery.
Animals only very exceptionally have been
poisoned by it; though it has been stated that -
both sheep and goats can eat it without being
seriously inconvenienced.
As an instance, two men died near Sunderland
by eating the roots when they were at work. Both
were found unconscious and paralyzed. Several
cases of children having eaten the root and died
are on record. In one case castor-oil in the form
of an enema saved the life of the child. _ ‘
WATER-DROPWORT (Cinanthe crocata, Fig. 24).
—This is a tall plant, from three to five feet in
height. It has a channelled, hollow stem, com-—
pound leaves, with much-divided leaflets. The
segments are rather broad, wedge-shaped, and ©
lobed. The fruit is narrow, oblong (see figure), =
The ridges are not very prominent. Wes
The plant bears from five or more spindle-shaped
fleshy roots of a pale yellow colour, mixed with
fibrous ones. They contain a milky and very — a4
1 Dr. Tanner prescribes for poisoning by Water-Hemlock,
emetics, castor-oil, and stimulants. Cold affusion will often
be useful, more especially if there be much stupor.
Ge 8 2H . , ce < xy
Sate ' DICOTYLEDONS 95
poisonous juice, which becomes yellowish on
. drying.
Every year men and animals are poisoned on
the Continent, and not infrequently here also, by
their inadvertently eating the roots of this plant.
The leaves have been eaten instead of celery, and
the roots instead of par-
snips.
Cattle have been poison-
ed by eating the plants
_ thrown upon the land when
the ditches have been
cleared out. It is said
they eat them without
repugnance, domestication
having weakened _ their
instinct.
_ All parts of the plant
‘are poisonous, but the
roots are much more so
than the stem and leaves. 3
ee CSCS Cys Bie Sea waoanpan ea
poison in some degree, :
and cooking weakens it still more, but does not
eliminate it altogether. Of animals, though all
_ kinds are poisoned by it, carnivores are less sus-
- ‘ceptible to the action than the herbivorous.
sas A writer records how a number of convicts work-
_ ing near Woolwich came across a quantity of the
ma
a
—
LD ||) ee
96 POISONOUS PLANTS
Water-Dropwort, and thinking it closely resembled
parsnips, seventeen of them ate it. Shortly after,
nine went into convulsions; six of them died
within a few hours. In one case the quantity taken
did not exceed the top of the finger in size. The
symptoms were insensibility, tetanus, delirium, and
insanity. The behaviour
of persons poisoned is
described as being like
“ay those of delirium tremens.
SW The voot is considered to
“8 be the most active part of
ENS \ ~ the plant; it is described
Bad as being not unpleasant
seh, to the taste ; but a very
a> eV, v. small portion of it, unless
celia) ae speedily ejected by an
SES S a emetic, will suffice to
Sy destroy life.
oe ee \ Vf ‘i G. Ph-Uandrium (Fig.
25) is also an aquatic
plant, growing in ponds
and ditches. The leaves have finely - divided
Fig. 25. (Enanthe Phellandrium.
segments, and those submerged, as is so generally — ;
the case, almost thread- or fennel-like,
Though poisonous, its deleterious principle is
less at spring-time than later in the season; so.
that cattle can browse upon it with impunity ; ; ‘but
it is injurious to horses,
a
DICOTYLEDONS 97
C. fistulosa (Fig. 26) is also aquatic. It has a -
mixture of slender and fleshy roots. The leaves
are much arrested with few, narrow segments and
hollow petioles (see the figure).
The sepals of the flower are unusually large
_ (see figure); as in most
umbellifers they are quite AN ! y Wa
rudimentary. \\ Re ae
AS ie SS e Ne
. . > ° 2. TN a SHES
This species is poison- Ni RINE RTE
ous; but it is only ex-
ceptionally that animals
have eaten it spontan-
eously.!
_Though the above
species are very danger-
ous, yet one, @. pzmpinel-
loides, a rare plant in
England but commoner
abroad, has roots which
-areeaten. They are full ¥
of starchy matter with Fig. 26. CE&nanthe fistulosa ; Common
the flavour of filberts, and erecta
_ were formerly sold at Angers and other continental
markets. It is said, however, that when wild they .
are not so harmless as when cultivated.
INW
1 Dr. Tanner recommends for poisoning by species of
Gnanthe or Water-Dropwort, emetics, castor-oil, and stimu-
lants. Cold affusions will often be useful, more especially if
_ there be much stupor. ;
e =
98 POISONOUS PLANTS ae
WATER-PARSNIP (Szum Jlatifolium, Fig. 27)— —
This umbellifer occurs in watery places all over
the British Isles., The root of this, as well as of
the only other species we possess (.S. angustifolium), —
is reputed deleterious; but pigs and oxen eat —
the stem without apparent inconvenience. Still
it is important neverthe-
Ged ey less not to allow cows in |
AS |, milk to eat it, as it com- |
EN) Pw, municates a disagreeable
<i taste to the milk.
a aS ay Both species are easily
3 , We recognized by their pin-
WZ nate leaves, the leaf-stalks _
EM INA AL 3 carrying about six to us
eight pairs of ovate
toothed leaflets. The ©
general involucre is com- oe
posed of broadish or a
Fig. 27. Sium latifolium ; Broad lanceolate bracts; and
WT ee there is also an involucel.
There are slender ribs on the fruit, with rather —
prominent pointed calyx-teeth. See
BEAKED PARSLEY (Anthricus sylvestris) is only
too common in hay-fields, multiplying with great
rapidity and bearing a profusion of white flowers.
It is sometimes called cow or sheep’s parsley; the —
fruits are elongated, perfectly smooth, and without —
any ridges whatever. aa Parapet
4
DICOTYLEDONS 99
The plant has rather a strong odour and a
bitter taste. Though cows refuse it, most animals
-caneat it with impunity. But a case is on record
of a herd of pigs foraging among a quantity of the
beaked parsley, which was struck with a sort of
paralysis. Four died from severe internal in-
eae flammation.
WILD CARROT (Daucus Carota)—One would
not suspect this plant of having any deleterious
properties. It certainly has none when cultivated ;
_ but a remarkable occurrence is reported in the
case of some white mice to which the roots of the
wild carrot were given to eat; they died very
quickly after consuming it.
- Nothing is known of any deleterious principle
in the wild form of the plant. It has a rather
strong odour and taste. Further researches are
required.
Cow-PARSNIP or HOGWEED (Heracleum Sphon-
_ dylium), a coarse-growing plant with large leaves
and broad, rough leaflets, common in moist woods
and meadows. It is usually regarded as entirely
inoffensive ; and it is only under special conditions
that it appears capable of doing any harm. In
Belgium it has given rise to the affection known
as Panazisie; because in that country it is com-
monly called Cow-Parsnip. A number of work-
men in the month of August in 1856, at a time
Ere.
ay
ee
“x aye,
a
Je 5
. of great heat and heavy dews, the plants being —
lls toe
Se 7
he
fe:
Reh. >
100 POISONOUS PLANTS 3 ie
charged with dew, were employed to root up —
plants of the hogweed in a certain park. Nearly
all of them experienced the same, or the next :
day, a sensation of intense heat in the left arm
and about the wrist. An inflammation like
erysipelas developed itself accompanied by sores,
which prevented them from working for nearly
three weeks. Some beasts which ate the up-
rooted plants suffered internal irritation. The
left arm being injured is explained by the workmen
having torn up the plants with their right hand,
and then laid them across the left arm. It was
observed that the workmen who began their
work early, suffered much more seriously than
the later arrivals, when the sun had dissipated
the dew. ! | 5y
Looking for the cause of Panazsze,it has been
suggested that it is the essential oil; that during
the day this oil evaporates as it is formed; butin
a misty morning, without sun, in a meadow |
charged with dew, it is condensed instead of a
being volatilized; then being dissolved in Oa
dew which covers the plant, this acquires the -
irritating property which gives rise to the complaint. — |
The Ivy FAaMILy (Aratzacee). St
Ivy (Hedera Helix).—This is our only a
ative, and is too well known to need | fe
DICOTYLEDONS IOI
cases have been known of their suffering from
eating them. They prove to be very emetic and
purgative, etc., producing more or less inflamma-
tion in the digestive canal. The berries contain
a very bitter principle, apparently somewhat akin
to quinine. They are, however, largely eaten by
wood-pigeons, blackbirds, and thrushes,
DIVISION III
COROLLA, WITH THE PETALS COHERENT =!
ELDER FAMILY (Caprifolzace@). “ate,
COMMON ELDER (Sambucus nigra).—This is a Fee
tree or shrub familiar to all. It has compound _ Ee
pinnate leaves like those of the ash-tree, and flat-
topped “corymbs” of numerous yellowish-white —
flowers. ‘ae
A close examination will reveal an inferior ovary, 23
five points on the top of it represent the calpaie
the corolla has the petals coherent and the eae ;
to it. Three minute stigmas reveal the fact hates “g
there are three carpels. The style is swollen ane .
a conical fleshy mass as the organ for secreting
honey. :: ee Be. * me 3
There are several uses to which the elder i is put,
but in only one or two particulars can it be re :
garded 3 as deleterious. _ Thus, while Elder flowers,
102
accident has been re-
DICOTYLEDONS 103
wine, yet an infusion made from the leaves is fatal
to insects, so that some gardeners use a strong
infusion to preserve delicate plants from insects
and caterpillars. The young leaf-buds are very
purgative, and are somewhat dangerous in con-
sequence. The bark, too, is violently cathartic.
The juice of the root, taken as a supposed remedy
_ for a bilious attack, proved fatal in the case of a
woman ; and the leaves have caused severe irritant
- poisoning in a child.
_ DwaArF ELDER, or DANE-WORT (Sambucus Ebu-
lus) is a somewhat local
species, and sub-herbace-
ous rather than being a
woody plant. It produces
black shiny berries.
It has a strong odour
which repels animals. Al-
_ though the root, bark, and
leaves possess. violently
purgative properties, no
corded from misuse of
these parts. Fig. 28. Sambucus Ebulus; Dwarf
The berries, equally pur- aa
gative, rarely tempt children because of the odour
of the plant. They have, however, been fraudu-
lently used for colouring wine, to which they
_ impart their deleterious properties.
104 POISONOUS PLANTS
Turkeys have been known to suffer from eating ©
the berries. Drying weakens the activity of the
deleterious principle, but does not completely
destroy it.
DAIsy FAMILY (Composite).—This family is
often called Composites, because instead of having
separate flowers, the so-called “flower” is really
composed of innumerable “ florets,’ often of two
kinds. Those in the middle of the “head”—say
a daisy—have yellow corollas with a five-toothed
border. These are called “ disk-florets,’ while
those on the circumference have a narrow strap-
shaped or “ligulate” corolla. These form “ray”
florets. |
In some plants the ray is wanting, as in the
minute heads of Wormseed, and Wormwood of the
genus Artemisia.
In one section a// the florets are ‘alilees and ©
“lisulate.” This is the case with the dandelion -
and lettuce.
The enormous family of Composites possesses
very few poisonous kinds. We have only two to
be mentioned of English plants.
WORMSEED (Artemisia maritima).—The com-
«
-
monest species of this genus is Mugwort (A. vul- — ae
garis), while the old-fashioned garden plant (A.
A brotanum) is known as Southernwood. A.Dracun- — ae
1 For poisoning by E/ders, Dr. Tanner recommends the os 3
same treatment as for Bryony. Note, p. 85.
DICOTYLEDONS 105
culus is the herb Taragon. And Wormwood (A.
Absinthium) flavours absinthe. The species are
often bitter; some Eastern kinds were the Worm-
wood of Scripture.
The species first mentioned is a native of mari-
time saline districts, and i sl. ip
wie ij J.
4a 2 Ws
= na f)/
\, Ay &
yy
possesses -a_ principle
called Santonzn, which is
included in our British
Pharmacopceia.
The minute flower-
heads, for it is a member
of the Composite family,
are a popular remedy
for certain infantile com-
plaints, and have often
been administered unad-
visedly with fatal results,
_ but in small proportions,
viz. two in eighteen, si Fig. 29. Lactuca virosa, var. Scari-
eleven per cent. ola; Wild Lettuce.
It has the remarkable effect of affecting the
sight, making everything to appear yellow; and
this effect may last twenty-four hours. This
yellowness is preceded by a violet hue in some
cases. :
WILD LETTUCE (Lactuca virosa)—This has a
milky juice like that of the dandelion. It is an
annual, frequenting waste stony places, and is
106 POISONOUS PLANTS ©
from one to two feet high. Another species, ac- ;
cording to some botanists, Z. Scariola, has erect —=—
leaves, with deeply-cut lobes; but Mr.Bentham unites rs
the two. It is the origin of the garden lettuce. 25
gas Tere
: Rg oy Oe
te re 9 FP als Le .
In the wild state it exhales adisagreeable odour,
so that animals will not touch it. But it has no sa %
very active properties. ero.
It was thought that the milky juice was the same = re
as in poppies, but analyses can trace neither mor-
phine nor narcotine, which is characteristic of the ea
opium poppy. The principle is peculiar to this
: . amen. ale
plant, and is called Lactucine. oe.
It isto this that the lettuce owes its narcotic Beste
. * . . : ee, ea
properties ; but no case is known of any poisoning S.
by Lactucarium or “Lettuce opium” as the in-
e ° . e . —~ ~ beet
spissated milky juice is called. It has a weak nae
narcotic action when given in doses of from five —_ a
to twenty grains. Two grains will cause headache
and somnolency in some persons; so that it has
been recommended as a substitute for opium, as it
is not followed by the injurious effects of that
drug. a a
It has had the credit of being a poisonous plant ;
but it would seem that its deleterious properties —
have been somewhat exaggerated. eae
LOBELIA FAMILY (Lodeliacee).—Lobelias are
1 Dr. Tanner knew of no case of poisoning in 1862.
Should such occur, emetics and full doses of castor-oil might
be given.
~
by some botanists included in the Campanula or
_Canterbury-bell family. They differ by having
irregular flowers.
The ovary is two-celled and inferior. The calyx
consists of five pointed sepals on the summit of
the inferior ovary ; the corolla, instead of having
its petals coherent into the bell-shaped structure
of Canterbury-bells, has it split down the posterior
side, to allow the stamens to pass through it.
These have their anthers united into a tube, and
not free as in Campanula. The style is provided
with a tuft of hairs just below the two flap-like
stigmas, which are at first pressed together. The
use of this contrivance is to sweep out the pollen
‘as the style passes up the anther-tube. Having
done this the stigmas separate. It is then ready
for the visits of insects.
‘Like the Campanulas, Lobelias have a milky
juice. In both it is remarkably bitter and acrid,
but while the former are not regarded as poisonous
_ —Indeed one species of Campanula called Rampion
was cultivated for its thick tuberous roots, which
are milky and eaten in salads—the Lobelias are
dangerously poisonous. We have only two species
of Lobelia to represent the family in England.
LOBELIA (L. Dortmanna and urens)—Of these
two British species, the former occurs in lakes
in Wales, and the latter is found near Axminster.
- But numerous species from America are in cultiva-
DICOTYLEDONS 107
108 POISONOUS PLANTS
\
a A ee
«a fe ts
tion; the most familiar is perhaps the little blue-
flowered plant used for bedding in summer, JZ.
Erinus, from the Cape of Good Hope.
Lobelias have avery acrid milky juice. If taken
internally, it provokes symptoms analogous to those ~
produced by Belladonna, as it contains Atropzne.
Hence the specific name wrens, “burning.” Its
action is said to be very much like that of tobacco,
only differing in the greater intensity of the local
burning sensations. Disastrous results have fol-
lowed the misuse of the drug obtained from an
American species, by incompetent persons.
The species used in medicine is known as
“Indian Tobacco” (LZ. zuflata). It is a native of
North America; and its powdered leaves and
seeds have been employed as a remedy for asthma.
In one instance—writes Dr. Tanner—a quack pre- 7
scribed a drachm of the leaves which produced ey
pain, vomiting, and unconsciousness, death follow-
ing in thirty-six hours. Ignorant impostors, calling
themselves medical botanists, have poisoned several
simple individuals, both in England and America,
by physicking them with this mischievous and ei
powerful drug. The seeds are equally poisonous! a
1 Dr. Tanner adds that the stomach-pump or emetics must , ate
be employed. If the effects are not very severe, they will ,
generally cease spontaneously.
Dr. Brunton’s antidotes to poisoning by Lobelia are, a
purgative; demulcents; stimulants; tannin; strychnine,
hypodermically (5 mins. liq. strych.). .
DICOTYLEDONS 109
HEATH FAMILY (Ericacee)—This is a large
family, and divided into tribes by botanists. One
supplies the bilberry, whortleberry, and cranberry,
which bear edible fruit. Another includes the
heaths and ling ; but the only one which calls for
attention is that which contains the common Garden
Rhododendrons and Azaleas.
In the flowers of these plants the calyx is almost
entirely wanting; just a rudiment with five little
points remains. The corolla is somewhat irre-
gular, and having the posterior petal spotted.
Such spots and streaks in flowers are regarded as
“suides” or “path-finders” to insects, to lead
them to find the exact position of the honey-
glands. The stamens, five or ten, are “declinate,”
that is, they first bend downwards and then up-
wards, in order to bear the weight of the insect
which alights upon them, since there is no petal |
exactly in front for them to stand upon.
Contrary to the usual rule—that when the petals
are coherent, the stamens may be expected to be
adherent to the corolla-tube—the stamens are quite
free from the corolla, arising directly from the floral
receptacle.
The pistil has five coherent carpels, forming a
capsule when in fruit. :
RHODODENDRON (Rhododendron, sp.).—Numer-
ous species and hybrids of this genus are in culti-
vation, as well as others of the same tribe (Rho-
ST oe
> * ie:
Se eS
ot, oF .
Wr x4
110 . POISONOUS PLANTS Ses,
doree). They all possess acrid narcotic properties. ;
Thus 2. chrysanthum, a small shrub of Siberia, has
stimulant and narcotic virtues. The leaves are
used in infusion for rheumatism in Siberia. AR.
Jerrugineum of the Alps resembles it in its
properties.
The sub-genus Azalea has a species (A. Pontica)
which is possessed of highly narcotic properties. |
It has been suggested that it was the honey of ny
this plant which caused so much destruction in ae
Xenophon’s army in the retreat of the Ten
Thousand. It is said that the honey collected ©
from this plant has the same effect on the system
as Darnel (Lolium temulentum). It grows abun-—
dantly in Asia Minor and in the neighbourhood of — :
the Black Sea; and it is stated that goats which
eat the leaves suffer in consequence, and that it is S
fatal to cattle and sheep. ee
Kalmia latifolia is frequently grown in shrub-
beries, the flower of which is remarkable for
having the stamens bent down and thrust into
little pockets in the corolla. It is one of the most _ ee:
dangerous of the whole family. It is found all over
the United States, and is there called Mountain _ #3
Laurel. The leaves are narcotic and poisonous, __
Death has occurred from eating the flesh of par- =
tridges and pheasants which have fed on them—
presumably the buds or seeds—during the winter. _
Similarly the flesh of hares which have been eee
i
~
DICOTYLEDONS III
feeding on &. chrysanthum has been considered to
be poisonous.
Ledum palustre (of Europe) and ZL. latifolium (of
N. America) are two species of small shrubs, and
grown in gardens, They can scarcely be called
poisonous plants; indeed the second is called
_ Labrador Tea, as the leaves are used for an in-
fusion ; but still, the leaves of both species when
infused in beer render it very “heady,” and cause
headache, nausea, and even delirium ; showing that
they contain some deleterious principle.
PRIVET FAMILY (Oleace@).—The only members
of this family, natives of Great Britain, are the
Privet and the Ash-tree ; but the Lilac, Phillyrea,
and Jessamine (if this last be included, as some
botanists place it) are. familiar garden flowering
shrubs, all having opposite leaves.
The calyx has four coherent sepals; the corolla
has four coherent petals. There are only two
stamens adherent to the corolla and a pistil of two
coherent carpels. The latter forms a berry in the
privet, a stone-fruit or “drupe” in the Olive, a
bursting capsule in the Lilac, and a winged inde-
hiscent fruit called a “samara” in the Ash. This
ic tree: 1S remarkable for having no calyx or corolla,
only the two stamens and pistil; sometimes each
is alone, thus forming male and female flowers;
sometimes they are together. |
PRIVET (Ligustrum vulgare).—This is not
e shia Sats re a ai
.
*
ise i , a es
_ i&Il2 POISONOUS PLANTS D
generally regarded as a poisonous shrub; but
Dr. Taylor records a case in which three children
ate the small black berries of this bush. They
suffered from violent purging. A boy and a girl
died, but the third child, also a girl, recovered, as
she had only tasted, but had not apparently
swallowed any, or at all events enough to harm
her.
PRIMROSE FAMILY (Primulacee)—Taking a
primrose or cowslip as a type of this family, the
structure of the flower is as follows. The calyx
has five sepals coherent into a tube. So has the
corolla. The five stamens are situated zz front of
the petals. This is so unusual that it calls for an
explanation. The law of alternation between the
positions of the whorls signifies that a whorl of
stamens has been suppressed between the corolla
and the existing whorl ; so that the parts may be
represented thus :—
5. Se 5. S: Di
Gee ue ee om
where S. stands for sepals ; P. for petals ; * arrested ‘
stamens; St. existing stamens, and C. for carpels, —
-) C-
In the primrose and cowslip the stamens and
pistils are “dimorphic,” that is, of different lengths
DICOTYLEDONS Meet 3
in the flowers of different plants, forming the
popular distinction of thrum-eyed and pin-eyed.
‘The anthers of the stamens are situated high up
in one and low down the corolla-tube in the
other kind of flower ; the pistils have the lengths of
their styles correspondingly graduated, so that they
are adapted for being crossed.
This arrangement does not exist in all species
of primrose, nor is it in all other genera of this
family. Under cultivation and certain circum-
stances in the wild state, the stamens and style
may be of the same length in the same flower,
though such be normally dimorphic.
PIMPERNEL, or POOR MAN’S WEATHER-GLASS
(Anagallis arvensis).—T his is too smalla plant to be
eaten in any quantity by animals ; but experiences
abroad have shown that it certainly contains in-
jurious properties, which neither drying nor boiling
destroys. It is said that some horses were killed at
Lyons by means of it. It has also caused cage-birds
to die from their having eaten it when given to
them in mistake for chickweed. This plant hada
reputation for curing hydrophobia, but no such
property is really attached to it. It is said that
sheep refuse to eat it. An extract made from it is
very powerful and poisonous.
CYCLAMEN (Cyclamen sp.).—We have one species
of this plant which has established itself in woods
in Kent and Sussex. The cultivated species is
H
II4 POISONOUS PLANTS
known as C. Persicum. It forms a large globular —
tuber, which in Sicily is eaten by swine ; hence it
was formerly called Sowbread. In a fresh state it
is acrid and bitter ; but when dried its acridity is
diminished, and when roasted it becomes perfectly
harmless. It acts as a violently drastic purgative,
and isemetic. It is sometimes used, but often with
serious results, accompanied by internal inflam-
mation and even terminating in death. It is
singular, writes Dr. Hogg, in addition to the pre-—
ceding details, that while pigs can eat any quantity —
of the tubers with impunity, the juice acts asa
poison on small fish, if mixed with the water in
which they are, in the very small proportion of Tin
3000. The active properties reside in a principle —
called Cyclamine, a powerful poison, producing
effects similar to those of Woorari, which the —
Indians of Rio Negro use for poisoning their
arrows.
CONVOLVULUS FAMILY (Convolvulace@)—The
members of this family are mostly climbers ; but
when a genus has species of which some live in
shady woods, the other in hot, dry deserts, the —
former climb, but the latter do not; such habits —
being adaptations to two very different conditions _
of environment.
The form of the corolla is like the mouth of oe
trumpet, and various kinds of convolvulus must
be familiar to all.
DICOTYLEDONS 115
They generally have a milky juice and an acrid
taste, so that cattle will not touch them. Pigs
have been known to eat the roots of the white-
flowered hedge convolvulus, with bad results.
In fact all of our three wild species, the one men-
tioned, the Lesser Bindweed, and the Calystegza of
our sandy sea-shores, have all an actively cathartic
principle.
It may be added that the popular remedy
“Jalap” is the root of a Mexican species, deriving
its name from the town Xalapa.
On the other hand, the Sweet Potato largely
imported from Spain before the true potato was
introduced in the sixteenth century, is another
member of the family (Latatas edulis), the name
giving rise to “potato,” which belongs to a totally
_ different family.
One genus called Dodder (Cuscuta) is parasitic,
resembling yellow threads bearing globular tufts
of flowers ; it is frequent on gorse, clover, etc. The
species partake of the same properties as Con-
volvulus. |
POTATO FAMILY (So/anace@).— Four genera repre-
sent this family in Great Britain, a// of them being
poisonous ; viz. Henbane, Deadly Nightshade or
Belladonna, Woody Nightshade, and the Black-
fruited Solanum. The Thorn-apple was introduced
from North America.
_ Woopby NIGHTSHADE, or BITTERSWEET (So/a-
116 POISONOUS PLANTS Sie te
num Dulcamara).—This is a familiar plant, scramb-
ling or climbing over our hedges, with single or
trifoliate, oval leaves. Clusters of purple flowers
arise from a point in the stem above a leaf, and
not as usual from its axil. There is a small calyx
of five coherent sepals; a corolla of five coherent
petals carrying the five adherent stamens, The
anthers are sub-coherent, forming a cone and
dehisce by terminal pores. The pistil of two
carpels becomes an oval scarlet berry.
There is a deleterious principle called Solanzne, ;
which is found in all the species of Solanum. As
it occurs in the stem and leaves of the Bittersweet ;
—this name being derived from the taste of the
stem, being at first bitter, followed by a sweetish __
flavour—these parts must be regarded as suspicious ; a
indeed, they have been proved to have narcotic
properties, producing giddiness and sickness when
eaten.
With regard to the berries, there is no doubt
that they are very harmful. Two childrendieda __
short time ago near Birmingham who had been
eating a variety of berries, including the poisonous ay
ones of Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum),and
also those of the Woody Nightshade. Moreover,
evidence of the presence of the poisonous Principle 9
Solanine was detected.
Solanine is especially connected with the green __
parts; so that even if the ripe berries proved — c
DICOTYLEDONS tee
innocuous in some cases, as has been asserted,
children and others would very probably suffer if
they ate them at all green. The principle acts
aS an acro-narcotic poison. It is retained in the
- British Pharmacopceia, but apparently not often
employed.
BLACK SOLANUM (Solanum nigrum).—This is
a small annual plant, about one foot to eighteen
inches high, and is often a troublesome weed in
ill-kept gardens, if allowed to scatter its purple-
black, globular berries. It exhales a disagreeable
odour. Solanine exists in the fruits. Children
have suffered by eating them on the Continent,
though they are sometimes harmless to adults,
at least in this country, as Solanine is not very
abundant in the stem and leaves, which had no
effect upon a horse.
Three children are recorded as having eaten the
berries of the Black Solanum, and suffered from
vertigo, dilated pupils, nausea, colic, stertorous
breathing, and convulsions.
POTATO (Solanum tuberosum).—The potato plant
contains the same principle, Solanine ; which, since
it is mostly in connection with green parts or
_ chlorophyll, potatoes which have been insufficiently
covered and become green, should never be eaten,
1 Dr. Tanner says :—To prevent a fatal result from Hen-
bane or Nightshade, we must trust to emetics and full doses
of castor-oil.
118 POISONOUS PLANTS
' bs >
The tubers contain it least of all the parts of the el
plant; and when potatoes are boiled, the dele-
terious principle is not destroyed, but passes out ae
into the water. a
No injury to man has ever been recorded facae oF
the Solanine of potato plants; for it is only the
harmless and useful tubers that are eaten. The
skins, which contain the most of it, are peeled off. Fo
On the other hand, accidents with animals are
not at all uncommon. Cattle have suffered most, a
and even dogs have suffered when fed exclusively _ ”
on potatoes. Cows will eat raw potatoes, some- =
times given under the impression that it increases
the milk; but they have been known to suffer in
consequence; as also by the foliage when given a
to them in times of scarcity of forage. me.
AUBERGINE (Solanum Melongena).—As in pota- _ a
toes, the same principle is associated with chloro- —
phyll; so the purple fruits only of this plant
should be eaten, and all half-ripe or green ones
avoided. as
Besides the species mentioned, others are often _
cultivated, and are probably more or less dangerous. _
There is one which becomes a tree on the Continent, :
and is not infrequently grown in conservatories, —
popularly known abroad as Trompette du Jugement. «
The Egg-plant, Mad-apple or Jew’s-apple (So/a- —
num esculentum) is a native of the East Indies, and
sometimes cultivated. It produces a fruit the: Ses -
DICOTYLEDONS I1g
size and form of a hen’s egg, generally white. They
are used in the South of Europe raw or cooked ;
Fig. 30. Atropa Belladonna; Deadly Nightshade.
but if eaten in excess are described as producing
injurious effects. _ :
DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (Aévopa Belladonna, Fig.
3 30).—This is a perennial herb, between three and
120° «4 POISONOUS PLANTS |
four feet in height, branching with rather large
leaves finely pubescent or downy, oval and pointed.
The flower has a tubular corolla of a purplish-blue
colour. The rather large berries are shining and ~
black, when ripe (see figure).
The Belladonna is very poisonous ; the berries,
which are intensely sweet, having caused many
mishaps among children ; though of all its parts
the berries are the least rich in active principles, as
compared with the roots, which are the most active ;
and the stem, leaves, and flowers, which take an
intermediate position.
Drying does not destroy the poisonous properties.
Men and animals suffer alike from the Belladonna,
but in different degrees. Man is most susceptible,
after him are the cat, bird, and dog; the horse is
less affected by it. The pig, goat, sheep, and
rabbit are but little sensible to its action ; but only
in consequence of a more rapid elimination of the
poison. .
The same remark applies to Cytzstne of the
Laburnum.
An adult person has eaten two or three berries
without injury, but beyond that dangerous symp-
toms are experienced; but it has been recorded
that, on one occasion, a fatal result did not follow
the consumption of thirty berries. Fortunately if
the principle is of itself an emetic.
oP
+ .
DICOTYLEDONS eras
The effect of this plant, writes Mr. Johnson,
is peculiar in causing, first great excitement, and
afterwards stupefaction and death. The pupil of
the eye is usually much dilated. A remarkable
case of poisoning occurred in 1806, when the berries
were sold in London as edible fruits by some
ignorant dealers. Two persons who partook of
them died, and others narrowly escaped.
It was probably the Belladonna which proved
disastrous to some troops under Mark Antony
as described by Plutarch. He says that those
who sought for herbs obtained few that they were
accustomed to eat, and in tasting unknown plants
they found one which caused insanity and death.
He that had eaten thereof immediately lost all
memory and knowledge; but at the same time
would busy himself in turning and moving every
stone he met with, as if he were engaged in some
very important pursuit. The camp was filled with
unhappy men bending to the ground, and digging
up and removing stones, till at last they were
carried off by a bilious vomiting, when wine, the
only remedy, was not at hand.
In modern times it is reported that one hundred
and fifty soldiers suffered from the ill effects of
this plant in the early part of last century.
Dr. Tanner observes that there is often a dis-
position to laugh and talk loudly, to have fanciful
delusions, with a difficulty of walking ; symptoms
122 POISONOUS PLANTS 7 ee ae :
somewhat resembling those of poisoning by the <->
mandrake, another species of the same genus. acd
Mr. Blyth says that the Deadly Nightshade
contains not only its own poisonous principle,
Atropine, which is the same as that of the Thorn-
apple, Daturine, but Hyoscyamine as well, character-
istic of the Henbane. The young roots contain
the last only, while the older have Atropine in
addition. The ripe berries contain both, if culti-
vated, but the wild berries have only Atropine. ms
The seeds are very small, kidney-shaped, covered
with small, round projections. Mr. Blyth gives
statistics of poisoning by Atropine for ten years
ending 1892. The total number was seventy-nine,
Twenty-nine were suicidal, the rest accidental,and
almost invariably the result of mistakes in phar- eet;
macy. It is children alone who have eaten the %
berries of Belladonna, and leaves or seeds of
Thorn-apple.! pe
The late Dr. B. W. Richardson considered the
drug administered to Juliet was Mandragora, ~
allied to our Deadly Nightshade ; as, contrary to
jv
1 Dr. Brunton gives as antidotes to poisoning by Belladonna
and also by Thorn-apple (Datura Stramonium), stimulants —
and coffee; inject caffeine subcutaneously; arouse from ert
stupor, as in opium poisoning; and, if necessary, artificial — ie
respiration.
Dr. Tanner suggests the use of emetics and purgatives
to free the intestine. Mr. Blyth, besides these,adds anenema
of coffee. Hot water to the feet and alternate donee. oe Rea
cold and hot water are found useful. ;
Rene er ey DICOTYLEDONS 123
the usual descriptions of the actions of poisons by’
_ Shakespeare, which, he noted, are generally wrong,
that of the Mandrake is correct. It was used as.
a narcotic anesthetic by the ancients, for patients
undergoing amputations, and not discarded until
the fifteenth century. A wine was made from it
called “ Morion.” The Mandragora was taken by
some people, as many do opium now, and they
were called Mandragor-
ates. In the period of their
recovery from the intoxi-
cation they © shrieked.
Shakespeare, however,
refers to the popular mis-
apprehension that it was
“the root which shricked
when drawn out of the
ground, :
THORN-APPLE (Datura
Stramonium, Fig. 31).—
This is a North American
plant, but is often found
wild on waste ground.
. A variety with purple Fig x. Datura Stramonium ; Thorn-
flowers called D. Tatula aby.
is sometimes cultivated. They are large plants, but
annuals, much branchingin a forked manner. The
leaves are large, with a wavy and toothed margin;
the flowers are three inches long, white, with a folded
=-
124 POISONOUS PLANTS
and only half-opened corolla. Unlike the preceding
members of the Potato family, this and the Hen-
bane have capsules and not berries. The Thorn-
apple derives its name from the fruit being covered
with spines. When ripe it bursts into four valves,
leaving a large central structure upon which are
several black rough seeds.
The whole plant is poisonous, but the seeds are
the most active ; neither drying nor boiling destroys
the poisonous properties.
Among human beings the greater number of
accidents have occurred among children who have ~
eaten the half-ripe seeds, which have a sweetish
taste. |
Browsing animals refuse to eat the Thorn-apple,
being repelled by its disagreeable odour and
nauseous taste.
The stem and leaves dried and smoked form a
popular remedy for asthma ; but their employment
is dangerous and doubtfully remedial.
It is said that the priests of Delphi used either
this or some other species of Datura to produce
their semi-delirious paroxysms, believed by the
populace as being of divine inspiration. It is
thought to act more powerfully on the brain than
Belladonna, and to produce greater delirium.? -
HENBANE (yoscyamus niger, Fig. 32). —Thisis
1 The same remedies are recommended as for Belladonna ade
or Deadly Nighishade, note, p. 122.
DICOTYLEDONS 125
an annual, which, like the Thorn-apple, frequents
waste grounds. It grows about a foot in height, is
densely hairy and sticky. The leaves are large
Fig. 32. Hyoscyamus niger ; Henbane.
and deeply indented. The corolla is ofa yellowish
colour, and has the veins pencilled of a_ violet
tint. The form is funnel-shaped. The capsule is
126 POISONOUS PLANTS
embedded in the persistent calyx (see central
figure), and dehisces by means of a lid,or what is
calleda“ circumscissile” manner. It has numerous
very poisonous seeds. ea
The -whole plant is characterized by a very 86.
“heavy,” nauseous odour. It is poisonous in all —
its parts ; and neither drying nor boiling destroys ae
its noxious properties. Be oS
Having a thick root, this has been eaten instead ieee
of parsnips and chicory; and children have -
eaten the seeds. Asa rule no animal willtouch
the plant ; but cows have been poisoned by having si
the Henbane mixed with their forage, it is said for
the purpose of fattening them. A small quantity
of the seeds of the Stramonium, as well as of
Hyoscyamus, are sometimes added. The idea
appears to be that the tendency to stupor and repose a
caused by these plants is conducive to fattening.
In the case of man, twenty seeds were insuffi- — 5
cient to prove fatal, though they induced grave SS a
results. The effects are the same as in | poisoning ee
by Atropine of Belladonna.t a
It is recorded that the whole of the inmates Bae:
of a monastery were poisoned by using the root <a
instead of chicory. an
Dr. Houlton states that the monks who partook zi
of the roots had such hallucinations that the ae Ee
1 Remedies for poisoning by Hezbane are the same as for -
Belladonna, note, p. 122. a
‘DICOTYLEDONS gies EE
~
establishment resembled a lunatic asylum. They
rang the bell for matins at midnight; and those
who attended were unable to read, or they read
that which was not in the book.
The seeds possess all the properties of the plant ;
the smoke taken into the mouth through a tube, from
_seeds heated on a plate, was a favourite remedy
for toothache in the Middle Ages, They are now
sometimes smoked in a pipe.
The roots put into soup have also caused serious
results.!
TOBACCO (WVicottana Tabacum, rusticum, etc).—
Several species are cultivated on the Continent,
and one (JV. affinzs) is frequently cultivated in
England for the sake of its white and scented
flowers.
Like poppies, the poisonous principle of the
Tobacco-plant is not in the seeds, but in the
foliage ; yet the seeds of the Thorn-apple, of this
same family, are very injurious.
The leaves when young are poor in the poisonous
alkaloid, which increases as they mature, and in>
_ the autumn, the maximum amount being in early
September. Climate has a great influence on its
production, as well as the nature of the soil and
the manures applied. Sandy soils with a clay
1 Dr. Tanner observes that to prevent a fatal result from
the use of //endane, we must trust to emetics and full doses
of castor-oil. |
— "— 4% . eek -
128 POISONOUS PLANTS
subsoil appear to induce the production of the
most nicotine, as the leaves become thicker under
these conditions.
Drying does not remove the deleterious proper-
ties. Nicotine is regarded as one of the most active
and dangerous poisons known.
The principal cause of accidents on the Continent
has been the injudicious use of lotions of the juice
of tobacco for the destruction of parasites; and the
practice of chewing it.
A similar usage of lotion for cattle has proved
injurious, especially when it has been applied all
over the animal ; and if there be any abrasions on
the skin, then the nicotine is rapidly absorbed at
such lesions, and alarming symptoms follow.
The goat, though usually omnivorous, refuses to
eat tobacco-leaves ; but the ox, on the other hand,
is said to delight in it, especially when dry, and
has been poisoned, having been attracted to it by
the odour, as the following case shows. A peasant —
in the South of France hid some tobacco under
straw in a shed, and his ox discovering it, ate the ©
tobacco, and died the same day. ©
Another remarkable instance of tobacco-poison- 45
ing occurred some years ago in France. A man
who attempted to smuggle tobacco into France,
wrapped the leaves all about his body under his
clothing. The weather being hot, and having ge!
to walk some distance, he was thrown into a
A aoe
ro.
~ Sa
‘a .
- ae
¥
DICOTYLEDONS 129
violent perspiration. The consequence was that
an absorption of the poisonous property of the
tobacco-leaves took place. He was taken seri-
ously ill on the way, discovered by the Custom-
house officers, and subsequently died.
_ Tobacco for smoking was introduced into Europe
about 1560, Jean Nicot (whence the name Nicotiana)
having sent the seeds to Catherine de Medici. It
did not come into general knowledge till 1586;
when Sir Walter Raleigh, as well as the settlers
who returned from Virginia, introduced it into
England.
Tobacco met with a determined opposition from
European governments, who attempted to restrain
its use by penal enactments. In Turkey all found
cuilty of smoking were condemned to death. In
Moscow the knout was the punishment for the first,
and death for the second offence. In other parts
of Russia smokers had their noses cut off.
More than a hundred books were published in
condemnation of tobacco.
The following is a specimen of King James’s
Counterblaste against the use of tobacco :—
“ Now to the corrupted baseness of the first use
of this Tobacco, doeth very well agree the foolish
and groundlesse first entry thereof into this king-
dome ; it was neither brought in by king, great
_ conqueror, nor learned doctor of physicke. With
_ the reporte of a great discovery for a conqueste,
130 POISONOUS PLANTS
-
some two or three savage men were brought in, _
together with this savage custom, but the pitye is,
the poore wild barbarous died, but that the vile
barbarous custom is yet alive, yea, in fresh vigour.
Surely smoke becomes a kitchen farre better
than a dining chamber, and yet it makes a
kitchen oftentimes in the inward parts of men,
soyling and infecting them with an unctuous and
oyly kind of soote, as hath been found in some
great tobacco takers that after their death were
opened.” Ze
With all his earnest and sincere attempts to
stop smoking, King James does not appear to have
succeeded. ;
Mr. Burnett wrote that it is supposed that the —
“juice of cursed hebenon,” by which, according to
Shakespeare, the King of Denmark was porns
was the essential oil of tobacco :—
*“‘ Sleeping within mine orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, eater
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, “ea
And in the porches of mine ear did pour ASE
The leperous distilment.” : : Hs
According to Gerarde, tobacco was called “ Hen-— aie
bane of Peru,” and no preparation of real henbane
(supposed to be meant by “hebenon”) would _
produce death; but the essential oil of tobe i
might do so, 3
‘DICOTYLEDONS 131
Dr. Taylor records instances in which a large
quantity of tobacco was consumed by smoking
and death was the result. He mentions that
eminent men consider that habitual smoking is
injurious to health. Indeed, some have confessed
it themselves, as they could not work at literary
matters in consequence of lassitude ; and so gave
up the practice. The reason is that it disorders
the digestive functions.
A poisonous substance like tobacco, writes Dr.
Taylor, whether in powder, juice, or vapour, cannot
be brought in contact with an absorbing surface
like the mucous membrane, without in many cases
producing disorder of the system, which the con-
sumer is probably quite ready to attribute to any
other cause than that which would render it neces-
sary for him to deprive himself of what he considers
not merely a luxury, but an article necessary to
his existence.
With regard to the effects of smoking upon the
system, the following appears to be so important,
that it is worth repeating here to show the con-
nection between physique and nicotine :—* The
instructors in athletics at the universities of Yale
and Amherst have been making some interesting
observations with reference to the effects of smoking
upon the physique of the college students. We
do not know whether those who conducted these
‘inquiries entered upon them with any preposses-—
Pat: 4 se
~ a yA si eT
«
132 POISONOUS PLANTS ee Pe
sions or prejudices, but there appears no reason to
suppose that the observations were not fairly made
and accurately recorded. The consensus of results
in the two institutions is decidedly unfavourable to
the use of the weed. Dr. Seaver, who conducted
the experiments at Yale, found that those students
who did not use tobacco showed a gain over those
who were addicted to its use of 20 per cent. in
height, 25 per cent. in weight, and 66 per cent. in
lung capacity. Dr. Seaver has kept up his observ-
ations for eight years, and finds that they show
an equally decided advantage for non-smokers
during the whole period. A fact which seems to
afford an incidental but remarkable confirmation
of the conclusions thus reached by actual measure-
ments is that not only do all the boating crews
abstain from tobacco, but that among the whole 1
body of competitors in the different fields of Hs
athletics there is but one smoker. At Amherst |
the study of effects was in the case of the graduat-
ing class. In this class the measurements and __
tests showed that 71 per cent. had gained and 29S
per cent. had remained stationary or fallen off
during the last four years. Separating the smokers ~
from the non-smokers, it was found that the latter |
had gained 24 per cent. more than the former in
weight, 37 per cent. more in height, and 42 per
cent. more in chest-girth. Still further, those who oun
did not use tobacco were found to have an advan- :
DICOTYLEDONS : 133
tage of 8°36 cubic inches of lung capacity over the
smokers. These statements, which we give on the
authority of the Mew York Nation, may be
accepted, we suppose, as scientific facts, and as
such may be commended to the study of all lovers
of the weed.” !— Toronto Week.
PERIWINKLE FAMILY (Apocynacee).
PERIWINKLE (Vinca major and V. minor).—
These two species represent the family among our
wild flowers ; though it is a little doubtful whether
they are not naturalized from Europe. They
belong to a family usually characterized by
having poisonous, drastic, and purgative proper-
ties; though the Periwinkles themselves do not
seem to be more than bitter to the taste, slightly
acrid and astringent.
OLEANDER (Nerzum Oleander).—This plant, so
frequently grown on the Continent, is sometimes
cultivated in conservatories for its beautiful single
or double, white or rose-coloured flowers. It should
be well understood, however, that it is a deadly
1 For poisoning by Zodacco, Mr. Blyth’s recommendations
are as follows :— Unless the stomach has been already emptied
by vomiting, use stomach-pump or tube, or give an emetic
of mustard and plenty of water. Stimulants such as brandy
may be given. Keep the body warm, but the cold douche
may be applied tothe head. Tannin and vegetable infusions
containing tannin may also be given ; but it is questionable
if they are of much use, unless any remnants remain in the
stomach. Keep the patient lying down for fear of fatal
syncope.
134 POISONOUS PLANTS
poisonous plant. The flowers are as harmful as
other parts; thus a child ate a few of them, and in
two days died.
During the Peninsular War,a number of French —
soldiers who went out foraging near Madrid,
returned laden with the fruits of their search.
One of the number, with the view of securing some
wood to make skewers for the meat, cut a quantity
of Oleander boughs, and having stripped off the
bark, used the wood in the meat. The result was,
that out of twelve who ate of the meat, seven
died, and the rest were dangerously ill. The —
poisonous principle is said to be so subtle that its
exhalations alone are sufficient to cause serious
accidents, and even death, to those who sleep for
any time under its influence.t 2
Doa’s-BANE, or FLY-TRAP (A pocynum andra ae
Jolium), a native of the United States,as well as
the so-called Indian Hemp (A. cannabinum), are
both cultivated as garden plants. Neither can be
strictly called poisonous, as no serious results have
ever followed from their use as drug-plants; but ee
the root especially has a strong nauseous odour, Re
and an acrid bitter taste. on
F OXGLOVE FAMILY (Scrophularine@). —This is”
irregular corolla, but it takes various shapes as
A Mg. Blyth recommends the same treatment in the case
of poisoning by Oleander as for Digitalis or Bate! becca p: Set
DICOTYLEDONS | 135
in the familiar Foxglove, Toadflax, Snapdragon,
Monkey-flower, Speedwell, etc.
GREAT MULLEIN (Verbascum Thapsus, Fig. 33).
-~—We have five other
species of Mullein. This
one is recognizable by
its woolly foliage and
yellow flowers in a dense
spike. It stands inter-.
mediate between the Po-
tato and Foxglove
families; because while
the former has a regular
corolla with five perfect
stamens, in nearly all
other members of the
present family one sta-
men is suppressed, so
Biat. there are.-.usually . Fis: 99. Verbatim, Thapsts: Gees
four. In a few genera
they are still further reduced to two (Calceolarias
and Speedwells). In Mulleins, the stamens are
still five in number, but the posterior one is nearly,
if not quite, abortive as represented in the top
figure on the left. Moreover, the corolla has
scarcely become more than very slightly irregular.
The soft, thick leaves boiled in milk and
- sweetened are employed in medicine as being
emollient and pectoral; but the seeds possess
136 POISONOUS PLANTS
some toxic property, the nature of which has not
been determined, which stupefies fish; and _ has,
therefore, been used for this purpose to catch
them.
As children so frequently put all kinds of seeds
in their mouths, this plant should be avoided in
that respect. :
FIGWORT (Scrophularia, Fig. 34)—We have
four species wild, but only
two common (S. xodosa
and S. aquatica). They
have a disagreeable odour
and a bitter taste. They
were formerly credited as
very valuable in the cure
of scrofula. Hence arose —
the name of the genus
and family as well,
S. nodosa, found — in
shady and moist places,
has a quadrangular stem,
smooth and __ toothed
leaves, small purplish
Fig. 34. Scrophularia nodosa; ¢ :
shops flowers in a large terminal
“ panicle,” and a capsular fruit. The rootstock is
horizontal and tuberous. —
The plant acts as an emeticand purgative with
1 This is a technical term for any loose mass of flowers on
the same central stem.
DICOTYLEDONS 137
great energy ; fortunately animals will not touch
it. The plant should be regarded as suspicious ;
though no case of actual poisoning is known.
FOXGLOVE (Digztalis purpurea)—This hand-
some wild-flower, to be found in nearly every
county, as well as cultivated, affords a valuable
medicinal drug.
All parts of the Foxglove are poisonous, but the
seeds are richest in the deleterious principle. The
leaves are more active before flowering than after-
wards. Under cultivation the principle is less
active than in wild plants.
Neither drying nor boiling destroys the poisonous
principle.
Several cases of poisoning by Foxglove have
arisen from ignorant persons making an infusion or
“tea” of the leaves; but cases have occurred of
careless administration of the drug.
No animal, not even goats, will ever browse
upon the Foxglove.
Foxglove, or Digitalis, is so powerful in its
action that, as Dr. Hogg observes, as a medicine
it should never be administered unless by a skilful
and practised hand, because of the danger result-
ing from an imprudent use of it. One of its
peculiarities is that, after having been given in
moderate doses for several days without apparent
effect, it sometimes acts suddenly with an accu-
mulated influence, even to the danger of life.
138 POISONOUS PLANTS
Indeed, Dr. Tanner records two cases in which
death occurred within twenty-two hours after
being administered medicinally.
To illustrate the folly of ignorant people doctor-
ing themselves with fresh poisonous plants, a case
is recorded by Mr. Blyth of a woman who took a
large unknown quantity of the freshly-expressed
juice of Foxglove for the purpose of relieving a
swelling of the limbs. After suffering much she
died on the twelfth day. Rp
TOADFLAX (Linaria vulgaris).—This and five ~—_
other species are natives. They are all acrid and
poisonous ; but no harm has ever been recorded
as caused by them. Their odour and taste prevent
animals from eating them. Little or nothing is
known of their toxic principles.
LOUSEWORT (Pedicularis sylvatica and P.
palustris), so called from an old use, but not now
employed. The chief effects, if taken internally,
are vomiting and purgation. :
The first of our two species frequents shady
1 For Digitalis or Foxglove poisoning, Mr. Blyth recom-
mends emptying the stomach by emetics, sulphate of zinc or , &
mustard. Follow up with strong tea, or half-a-drachm of
tannic or gallic acid in aqueous solution. Stimulants in aoe
small doses may be given frequently by the mouth, or if me
there be vomiting by the bowel. e x
Dr. Brunton gives as antidotes, strong tea [or coffee wid A
brandy to lessen the tendency to sleep (Tanner) ]; tannins —
and stimulants. Aconite 5 mins. of the tincture, subcu-
taneously ; and perfect quiet in bed. So
— site on grass-roots is
easily known by its in-
_ ground up with corn they
impart a _ violet-brown ©
~
‘DICOTYLEDONS 139
places, is only eaten by animals when the plant
is very young, but is refused afterwards, as also
is the Marsh Lousewort at all times.
YELLOW RATTLE (Rhinanthus Crista-galli, Fig.
35).—This common para-
flated calyx and yellow
corolla (see figure).
This plant is refused
by cattle when dried in
hay. If the seeds are
colour to the flour. This
is due to a property
called Rhinanthine. It
is not known whether this
principle has really POi- Fig. 35. Rhinanthus Crista-galli
sonous properties or not ;
but if so, it is probably only after prolonged usage.
COW-WHEAT (Welampyrum pratense, etc.).—We
have four native species of this plant. Like the
last they are parasitic upon grass-roots, and
blacken when dried. JZ. pratense has yellow
flowers, but in JZ. arvense they are red.
‘While green the field Cow-wheat is eaten by |
all animals, and is considered as hastening cows
into milk. If the seeds be ground up with wheat, _
a | |
.
Ohi.
£
;
. y
~
y
{
140 POISONOUS PLANTS
they impart a violet tint, a peculiar odour, and
bitter taste. .
With regard to ill effects, it has been observed
that persons who have eaten bread contaminated
with the seeds of the Cow-wheat have suffered
from vertigo, but not invariably; so at present
it remains only as a suspected plant.
BROOMRAPE FAMILY (Orobanchace@).
BROOMRAPE (Ovobanche minor).—This species
is parasitic on clover and several other plants.
It only calls for attention in consequence of
its having been found to produce colic in animals
fed on clover in which this leafless parasite grows |
in abundance.
Further researches are required to ascertain
what injurious properties it may possess.
DIVISION IV
FLOWERS INCOMPLETE ; COROLLA WANTING ;
SEXES OFTEN SEPARATE
Dock FAMILY (Polygonacee).—The genus Poly-
gonum has twelve British species. It has a calyx
of five sepals, a variable number of stamens, and a
pistil of two or three coherent carpels forming a
little nut-like fruit.
Many are readily eaten by animals, but others,
as the hot-tasting Water-pepper of our ditches (P.
Hydropiper), are refused by them. The very astrin-
gent Bistort (P. Azstorta) is only eaten by certain
animals, as the horse, and P. amphibium by cows.
BLACK BINDWEED (P. Convolvulus).—This is
the only species to which any special attention need
be drawn, It is very common in cornfields; the
stem climbs up the stalk of the wheat, and apart
from its flowers, closely resembles the Lesser Bind-
weed (Convolvulus arvensis). If the seeds of this
plant are too much mixed with oats, it has been
found that, after a considerable period, serious
internal derangements follow.
141
as
+e
Bee
Te Rar eee oe
tah eet eg)
142 2 POISONOUS PLANTS
Polygonums are bitter, rich in tannin; but they |
are not otherwise known to be poisonous.
Dock (Rumex, sp.).—Those species which have
an acid flavour are called Sorrels. Of these we
have two species, the common Sorrel (R, Acetosa)
and the Sheep’s-sorrel (2. Acetosella, Fig. 36).
They are both dicecious, the male flower having a
calyx of six sepals and six stamens; the female
has a similar calyx, with a pistil carrying three
feathery stigmas (see figure on the right) adapted
to wind-pollination.
The acidity is due to the presence of binoxalate
of potash, sold as salts of lemon or of sorrel; and
in that form it is very poisonous. It is useful for
removing the stains of ink (made from oak-galls)
from linen.
The little plant known as Sheep’s-sorrel is
common in sandy districts, heaths, etc. It is called
by this name under the impression that sheep will
eat it with avidity ; but veterinary doctors charge
it with having poisoned both horse and sheep
which browsed upon it when the fruit was ripe
and full of seeds. Most serious disorganizations
coupled with internalinflammation and finallydeath |
are described of the horse ; but at present chemists as
have not tried to discover if the Sheep-sorrel’s has
any poisonous properties at all, beyond its acidity. — .
Instances of poisoning by the common Sorrel (R. —
Acetosa) have usually been 1 One with children who
. —
lees
B: .
-
said that the free con-
i
tivated in England, but to
DICOTYLEDONS 143
have eaten considerable quantities of the leaves ;
for it is not at all dangerous as a salad herb, in
soups, or in other culinary preparations. However,
the habit of eating all sorts of leaves by boys
should be rigidly restrained.
Oxalate of lime exists in large quantities in the
leaves and_ stalks of :
Garden Rhubarb (Rheum
sp.) of this family. It is
sumption of this plant has
more than once produced
symptoms of intestinal
irritation, and even gas-
tritis (Tanner).?
BUCKWHEAT (fagopy-
rum esculentum).—This
plant is occasionally cul-
a much greater extent : ‘ . rae.
» ig. 36. Rumex Acetosella ; Sheep’s-
upon the Continent for the sorrel.
sake of the nutritious seed for the use of poultry,
Be p. 64.
and also for bread among the humbler classes,
Apart from a certain indigestibility, there is
nothing else objectionable. But a very curious
result follows from animals eating the flowering
1 For remedies for poisoning by Salts of Lemon and
common Sorre/, see under Wood-sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella),
~
as Gear, ay . Re ay - >, = —m a, om x a =
cp tindig ca 3/9
Ce ae Ces i :
eT ee lI é., a)
144 POISONOUS PLANTS
tops of the growing plants, as well as the haulm
when given with oats to horses, but especially to
sheep, to which the haulm is given both as fodder
and litter. The effect is a sort of temporary
madness ; for as long as they were within a covered
sheep-fold they were all right, but when taken out
into the cold air for three hours, they became
agitated. Their heads and ears became swollen,
and they tried to strike their heads against
the walls. On being driven back they soon
recovered,
The flowering tops produce similar effects, and
it is said that hares, if they have been eating them,
become an easy prey to the dogs, for they stagger
as if intoxicated. Swine suffer in the same way,
and butt against each other furiously.
Though the stems and grain have been analyzed
carefully, nothing has been discovered to which
these alarming results can be attributed.
The nearest comparison appears to be the Indian
Hemp, which produces very similar results, as seen —
in a man who, under its influence, is said to “run
amok.” Hence the word “hashish” has given rise
to our “assassin”; that being the Arabic name for
hemp.
ARISTOLOCHIA FAMILY (A 7‘stolochiacee).—There
are two species of this foreign genus which are not
infrequently met with in gardens.
BIRTHWORT (A. Clematitis) has erect, ribald Rr
DICOTYLEDONS 145
sreen-yellow flowers. The plant is herbaceous,
about one and a half feet in height.
It has a very disagreeable odour which repels
animals, but it is occasionally eaten in forage on
the Continent, and imparts its flavour to milk.
Taken in large quantities, it has injured horses
when mixed with lucerne, inducing all the appear-
ances of poisoning. The recovery was slow. The
effects are attributable to a bitter principle which
has been extracted, called Avrzstolochine.
DUTCHMAN’S PIPE (A. Szpho) is a North
American plant climbing up walls, etc, having
large round leaves, and yellow and purple tubular
flowers. It has probably the same principle as the
_ former.
ASARABACCA (A sarum europeum)—Mr. Bentham
includes this in our British flora, as it occurs in
woods and shady places, and is believed to be a true
native in the North of England and Wiltshire.
It has an inferior ovary like the Aristolochia,
but only a short tubular greenish-brown calyx;
_ within it are twelve stamens, and six stigmas to
the pistil. The leaves are heart-shaped, arising
from a creeping rootstock.
This plant has long enjoyed a reputation as an
emetic and purgative. The root has an acrid taste.
The leaves are acrid and nauseous. The root has
been found to contain an acrid, volatile prin-
_ ciple, similar to that of the poisonous Cuckoo-pint
=
S 4 ~
Fr ‘ :
oe 4 ho" %
iS Pee Los :
ie -
ay ae oe ra :
<a i, > ie
BTS A a —
VAY ota & <
gers ON ee “
K
~ ey
‘ ‘ yw,
146 POISONOUS PLANTS
(Arum maculatum). The plant is called cabaret
in France, as it is employed as an emetic by
drinkers among the lower classes.
The DAPHNE FAMILY (Zhymelacee).— Two .
species of a single genus, Daphne, represent this
family in Great Britain.
MEZEREON (Daphne Mezereum).—This is a small
shrub about a yard high,
with numerous rose-red
flowers and scarlet ber-
ries. The leaves appear
after the flowers. «It
occurs in copses and
woods, but has long been
grown as a garden plant.
The flowers of Daphne —
consist of a tubular calyx |
of four coherent sepals,
carrying eight stamens in
two rows; and a pistil of
\) a single carpel, which ~—
Fig. 37. Daphne Laureola ; Spurge- becomes the berry r : ; ‘
rr ' All the parts of this, —
as well as of the next, our only other species, are — -
acrid and poisonous. Ss =
SPURGE-LAUREL (D. Laureola, Fig. 37). The ee g
attractive berries of this plant have been the cause — s
of many mishaps among children. .
Drying does not destroy their poisonous property. o
- '
~
DICOTYLEDONS ays
The bark is very acrid, and if applied to the skin
causes eruptions. If put in the mouth and masticated,
it produces a sensation of burning, and if swallowed,
it has drastic and narcotic effects. It has even
proved fatal to children. No animal will touch it.
In addition to the acridity characteristic of both
the Daphnes, the berries act in a manner somewhat
similarly to Monkshood and the Deadly Night-
shade. As the irritant action is the greatest danger,
the subjoined remedy should be given.
The MISTLETOE FAMILY (Loranthacee). —
Though the foliage is often given to animals as
fodder on the Continent, particularly to ruminants,
who like it, yet the berries appear to have injurious
effects. A case is on record of a little boy who
ate some dozen of the berries, and the symptoms
were those of alcoholic poisoning. Their glutinous
character can hardly render them very attractive,
but they are certainly to be avoided.
SPURGE FAMILY (Euphorbiacee).—We have only
three genera of this family in Great Britain, viz.
twelve species of Spurge, the Box, and two species
1 Antidote to poisoning by Mezercon and Spurge-laurel
(Daphne) :—Gruel and barley-water should be taken to
encourage the vomiting the berries occasion ; and castor- le
in preference to other cathartic medicine.
_ Dr. Tanner says :—Emetics, unless spontaneous vomiting
has freely taken place, when it may merely be encouraged
by the use of diluents. If the poison has entered the intes-
tine it must be removed by castor-oil. »
148 POISONOUS PLANTS
of Mercury. The family contains many tropical
plants and trees; some, such as the Manchineel,
being deadly poisonous.
SUN SPURGE (Euphorbia Helioscopea, Fig. 38).—
This is a common species. Like all the rest it has
an acrid milky juice, used as a popular remedy for
warts. The inflorescence consists of an umbel of
radiating peduncles, with a whorl of toothed leaves
below it. The ultimate pedicels carry the “flowers.”
They consist of a little cup-like structure provided
with five rounded glands on the edge. This is not
a calyx, but an involucre of coherent bracts.
Within it are a number of distinct flowers, reduced
to their simplest elements. Thus, there are
numerous male flowers, each consisting of a single
stamen, jointed to its pedicel, which arises from the
axil of a bract (see the figure of the Caper Spurge,
Fig. 39). Associated with these male flowers is one
female, consisting of a pistil of three coherent
carpels with cleft stigmas. Itissupportedonalong
stalk, so that it hangs out over the edge of the
“involucral cup” (see figure, top). This becomesa
capsule, the three carpels bursting elastically when __
ripe. ee
Besides being used for warts, this species, also
called Wart-wort, Churn-staff, Cat’s-milk, has — |
been improperly employed to cure sore eyelids, — ,
causing, in many instances, intolerable pain and. on
isiigeanaon. 2-3 ee
DICOTYLEDONS 149
CAPER SPURGE (Euphorbia Lathyris, Fig. 39).—
_This is really a continental species, but has long
been cultivated; and is now naturalized as a weed in
the vicinity of gardens. It has opposite smooth
leaves of a bluish-green hue. The structure of the
flowers is the same as in other species, only the
Euphorbia Helioscopia ; Fig. 39. Euphorbia Lathyris ; Caper
Sun Spurge. Spurge. Sone
glands on the edge of the involucral cup are
-_ erescent-shaped. Its unripe fruit resembles that of
the common garden Nasturtium ( 77op@o/um mazus),
and like that, it has been used for pickling pur-_
poses. As ofall other species of Euphorbia, the
milky juice is very acrid. The seeds, as of so |
many euphorbiaceous plants, yield an oil which is
_
eeLSOr Sr. POISONOUS. PLANTS at
violently purgative, like Croton oil. It speedily
becomes rancid, and has thena disagreeable action.
When green the ovary of the three-lobed pistil
contains the poisonous milky sap, and is very acrid ;
but after having been steeped in salt-and-water,
and then in vinegar, the poisonous property becomes
neutralized, or at least reduced in its virulence, so
as to render it inert in the amount of the pickle
usually eaten. |
Since, however, it has no advantage—rather the
reverse—over other vegetables, the practice of
pickling it should be discountenanced. The milky
juice which characterizes all the species is acrid
and poisonous, while the seeds contain an extremely
purgative oil, called “oil of euphorbia.” This is
very well known in the genus Rzcznus, or Castor-oil
plant, and in the Crotons, both belonging to this
family.
On the Continent peasants not infrequently use
the seeds of the Caper Spurge as purgatives, but
have suffered in consequence.
Only very young animals eat it. Older ones —
refuse it. Nevertheless cases of their having been |
poisoned by it are recorded. The goat, however,
is said to be nourished on it, but the milk of
such goats conveys the deleterious properties ae
the consumer.
The juice of Spurges eee to the skin acts as —
an irritant and vesicant, whether outside or in the a
~
a!
digestive canal, and also causes other graver
symptoms; yet instances of its poisoning children
are not wanting. In one case a boy died from
eating the Petty Spurge (Euphorbia Peplus), one of
our small species, growing from six to ten inches
in height. In a second case a boy died after eating
we Sun Spurge... (Zz.
Flelioscopia), already re- EL)
ferred to as another com- SEQ
mon field weed; in both
instances the mouth,
throat, and stomach were
found to be in a highly
inflamed and _ corroded
condition.
The roots and seeds of
species of Euphorbia have
been used by quack doc-
tors and ignorant country
folk with disastrous re-
sults, so that the whole
fibe-should ‘be catefully. "Manele Perens, ties
avoided.
MERCURY (MWercurialis perennis, Fig. 40, and
M. annua).—The first of these two species is very
common in shady places, hedgerows, etc., covering
large spaces of ground by means of its creeping
stems. The second is a not uncommon garden ~
weed, but much more abundant on the Continent.
i... © DICOTYLEDONS 4” ¢ Feo e 1g y eo
152 POISONOUS PLANTS an
Both species are dicecious; the male plant having
its flowers on long peduncles. Each flower con-
sists of a calyx of three sepals with about nine —
stamens (see left-hand figure).
The female flower has a similar calyx, two
rudiments of stamens, represented by filaments
only, and a pistil of two coherent carpels with
spreading stigmas (see right-hand figure); the
pistil becomes a bilobed nut-like little fruit (see
figure above female flower). Mercury has no
“latex” or milky juice, but it contains a poisonous
principle.
It exhales a disagreeable odour, so that animals
rarely eat it, but only when given to them mixed
with other herbage, when it has proved fatal to
sheep. In the case of man, misfortunes have only
occurred through misuse of the plant asadrug. As,
however, heat destroys the injurious property, it is
innocuous in hay, and can be also eaten as a
boiled vegetable, as is done in some parts of
Germany. After boiling, it is also given to pigs
in parts of France.
Yet it is a decidedly harmful plant ; the juice is
emetic and the seeds dangerously purgative ; even vie
fatal results have followed its use.
The annual species has been called Wild Seine
in some parts of the country, where they boil it as
a pot herb; the botanist Ray records a case in
which a whole family of five persons suffered
DICOTYLEDONS 153
severely from eating it fried with bacon. Some
fishermen ate it with soup, and all were seriously
ill an hour after the meal, showing all the symptoms
_-of narcotic irritant poisoning. Two of the children
died the next day.
Box (Buxus sempervirens).—This is a native of
Box-hill, but has been grown as a garden shrub
since the times of the ancient Romans, who made
hedges with it, often cutting it into fanciful shapes,
- or what is called topiary work. The wood is very
close-grained, so that it has been invaluable for
wood-engraving.
All parts of the Box emit a disagreeable odour
and taste, being bitter and nauseous, and have
affected both men and animals. With the former
it has generally been the result of a fraudulent use
of Box-leaves instead of hops in beer, and in mixing
them with senna-leaves.
Animals have injured themselves by browsing
upon Box shrubs, especially in arid districts de-
ficient in proper herbage. Camels in Persia have
thus suffered. In Western Europe the cuttings of
the dwarf box edgings have poisoned animals, even
pigs have died from eating them, as it is the
leaves and bark especially which contain the
poisonous principle, which is emeto-purgative, and
can be fatal in its effects. Whether the flesh of
animals poisoned by Box can communicate the
deleterious property to man, is not known for
‘ : certain. ‘
es
i ey ee X
SOG) eee :
oh lon J
: ‘tf: bey
OS Oh ee ae .
154 POISONOUS PLANTS ;
It is said that the porcupine of all animals is the —
only one which can eat Box with impunity.
CASTOR-OIL (Ricinus communts)—This plant
is often cultivated for its handsome foliage. It is
an annual in this country, but grows to a good-sized
tree in the South of Europe.
The value of this plant resides in the oil ex-
tracted by pressure from the seeds. The oil itself
is of a mild aperient nature; but the refuse of
the crushed seeds, or the whole seeds themselves
are much more injurious.
Cases of poisoning have occurred by children
eating the seeds, mistaking them for haricot-beans
or pistachio-nuts, and ignorant herbalists have ad-
ministered them instead of the oil. Even four
seeds caused grave results, and eight, death.
Very frequent poisoning of fowls and pigs has
occurred on the Continent, and eighty sheep were
on one occasion lost by their eating the refuse
from the oil-crushing, inadvertently given to them.
1 Dr. Tanner observes as to the treatment of patients "
suffering from such irritants as Euphorbium, excess of Castor
and Croton oil seeds:—The treatment must -be directed
to the removal of the injurious substance by emetics, etc., —
unless spontaneous vomiting has freely taken place, when it
may merely be encouraged by the use of diluents. If the
irritant has passed out of the stomach into the intestines, it
must be carried off by purgatives, especially by castor-oil. _
The inflammatory symptoms should be cautiously combated,
on account of the great prostration usually caused by these
poisons. Opiates, emollient enemata, and fomentations tothe —
abdomen will subsequently be found useful. se
DICOTYLEDONS 155
THE OAK FAMILY (Cupulifere).
BEECH (Fagus sylvatica)—The beech-masts
when deprived of their husks are perfectly harm-
less ; z.e. the embryo can be eaten with impunity ;
but it has been found that when they have been
crushed for the sake of the oil they contain, and
the refuse or husks have been made into cakes for
cattle, they suffer from some very deleterious
principle which resides in the husks alone. They
can eat the foliage of the beech, but not the husks
of the masts.
OAK (Quercus Robur)—The only part of this
tree to which attention need be called is the leaves,
and especially in a young state.
In early spring, at a time when the supply of
forage is well-nigh exhausted, it is the custom
abroad to send the cattle into the forests. The
animals having been for weeks confined to dry .
food, eat with avidity the young shoots and leaves
of the trees.
After some days there appear, first upon the
younger animals and especially upon those of a
thin skin with white hair, then upon the milch
cows, and finally upon all, signs of a malady long
known and described under the characteristic name
Maladie des bots. .
The animals, with a good appetite at first, eat
less and less; they ruminate but little and with
* ~e
(ee be
156 POISONOUS PLANTS
difficulty. They remain lying down for 4 long
time. The supply of milk fails. Fever follows -
and other serious troubles ; in some cases so violent
are they that death ensues. Soe
It is found that not only the oak but the horn-
beam, the hazel, the privet, the furze and the broom ©
in the young condition are apt to produce similar
complications. Now all these contain tannin when
the foliage is full grown—but then this productis
perfectly harmless: so that the belief at presentis
that certain substances, which subsequently decome —~_
tannin, are injurious in that previous condition in
which they occur in the young and early spring _ 3
foliage of these trees and shrubs. ery
-
GYMNOSPERMS.
PINE FAMILY (Conzfere). Only three plants
(trees and shrubs) represent this group in England,
Scotland, and Ireland—the Scotch Fir, the com-
mon Juniper, and the Yew. Numerous species of _
pines and firs are found in the cooler regions of the
northern hemisphere ; their representatives in the
southern being quite different, such as the familiar « na
“Monkey-puzzle” tree (Araucaria imbricata One aa
Chili). nee:
Cryptogams (such as ferns, together with club: ee
mosses and other flowerless plants) constituted a
large proportion of the forests of bygone ages, =
7
~
DICOTYLEDONS 157
which went to form our coal. As far as negative
evidence goes, no other flowering plants than
Gymnosperms existed in the so-called Carboni-
ferous age of the world.
This group of plants is called Gyinaospenns
because the seeds are naked, having no enveloping
pistil or carpel at all, In the case of the Fir-tree, a
pair of ovules are attached to the base of a flat
scale ; in the Juniper, one ovule stands at the base
of ascale, and three together make by the partial
cohesion of the scales the so-called Juniper-berry.
In the Yew, which is dicecious, the male flowers
consist of a tuft of stamens, each having several
anthers radiating from the top of the filaments
(see left hand, Fig. 41). The female flower consists
of nothing but a single ovule, surrounded by bracts
resembling those around the stamens.
When the ovule becomes a stony seed, there is
_ developed a scarlet cup around it (represented on
the bough in the figure).
YEW (Zaxrus baccata, Fig. 41) is classed among
the most dangerous of trees forcattle. _ It occasions
more accidents than others, because it has no
repelling scent nor flavour, as animals readily
browse upon its foliage, especially in winter when
they get too much dry food; and it is the older
foliage which is the most harmful.
The poisonous character of the Yew was known
to the ancients. Czsar, for example, mentions -
a .
Py ae |
158 POISONOUS PLANTS
the fact that Cativolcus poisoned himself with it.
They thought that whoever slept under a Yew-tree
would die. But, of course, this was all imaginary.
Fig. 41. Taxus baccata; Yew. x Saal
The Gauls, we are told, poisoned their arrows with a
the juice ; but this would be impossible from the __
_ small amount which could be put upon them.
The wood, bark, leaves, and seeds are all poison-
DICOTYLEDONS 159
ous ; but the scarlet succulent envelope of the seed
when ripe is innocuous. It is the leaves which are
‘most dangerous, and, contrary to the rule, it is the
older dark green, and not the bright green spring
foliage which is the most poisonous.
Drying does not destroy the property, as a mis-
hap occurred in administering powdered Yew-leaves
to a child; as well as fresh leaves as a vermifuge
which-produced fatal results.
Herbivorous animals alone are liable to be ~
injured by the Yew. Horses, asses, cows and
rabbits have been known to be poisoned ; not only
from browsing upon the trees, but from the cut
shoots where Yew hedges have been trimmed.
These should always be carefully removed and
burnt at once.
A case has been recorded of three horses taken
to be sold at a country fair, that were tethered
to the churchyard railings over which some Yew-
boughs hung. The horses ate the leaves, and all
three died. .
Children have been not infrequently poisoned
by eating the green seeds together with the harmless
scarlet covering. The seeds are deadly poisonous.
It has even been given as a remedy for a com-—
-plaint to some children ; but they all died within
a few hours of each other.
Of thirty-two cases of poisoning by Yew, nine
_ were by the berries and the rest from the leaves.
rote Mee TE Sete is Pe Ed
~>s ~~ a » eo} o> SS
7 . Yr att
160 POISONOUS PLANTS
These were all accidental ; twenty of the nity 2
two died, or 62°5 per cent. It is remarkable that
several deaths have occurred in lunatic. asylums — aot
from the patients having chewed Yew-leaves.t
SAVIN (_Junzperus sabina).—Though our common — cv
Juniper (_/. communzs) is harmless, the berries fee | is
employed in flavouring gin, and when dried area Bs ae
good stomachic, yet the Savin is not infrequently — ie
grown in gardens, introduced from the mountainous
regions of Central and Southern Europe. Many ~
cases of death have resulted from taking powdered —
Savin.
The leaves are poisonous, but their strong odour, “
resinous and acrid taste, repel all animals from “ae
browsing upon it.? | | = m
1 Emetics, castor-oil, and stimulants are the means to be > ras Ae
resorted to in cases of poisoning by Yew; withcold affusions, | os
especially if there be much stupor (Tanner). ; ie *
2 In case of poisoning by Saviz, Epsom salts and demul- aX oe
cents are recommended by Dr. Brunton: and as it is one a
of the “irritant” poisons, Dr. Tanner prescribes a treatment iN
described under Eufphorbiacee, in case of poisoning by
members of that family. Note, p. 154. s
At ost y
CLASS II
MONOCOTYLEDONS
DIVISION I
PERIANTH SUPERIOR AND OVARY INFERIOR
DAFFODIL FAMILY (Amaryllidacee). — This
family, like many other monocotyledonous plants,
is characterized by having a six-leaved perianth
instead of a calyx and corolla, these two whorls
being represented by the parts being nearly or
quite alike ; or at least both being petaloid. There
are six stamens and a pistil of three coherent
carpels.
It only differs from the Lily family by having
an inferior ovary ; so that members of these two
families are at once distinguished by that feature.
This family is represented in Great Britain by
three genera only, as follows :—
DAFFODIL (Varcissus Pseudo-narcissus).—The
bulbs of the Daffodil, as well as every other part
of the plant, are powerfully emetic; the flowers
161 L
162 POISONOUS PLANTS
also have been known to produce dangerous effects
upon children who have swallowed portions of them.
Nurses should be cautioned against putting flowers
into the hands of infants.
POETS’ NARCISSUS (JV. poeticus).—This species
is not wild, but abundantly cultivated both single
and double, the latter resembling the flower of
Gardenia. Its bulb is said to be more dangerous
than that of the Daffodil, being powerfully emetic
and irritant. Even the scent is deleterious, if the
flowers be in any quantity ina closed room; as
they have produced intense headache and vomiting
in some persons,
SNOWDROP (Galanthus nivalis).
SNOWFLAKE (Leucojum estivum and vernum).—
These two genera and species are both wild and
cultivated.
Numerous other genera are grown in this country,
such as the Guernsey Lily (WVerzne Sarniensis),a
native of South Africa, and many others. Asthe
bulbs of several are known to be poisonous, those __
of the above British plants must be regarded with
suspicion ; though no case is known of any one és
having been poisoned by them.
BLACK BRYONY FAMILY (Dioscoreaced). .
BLACK BRYONY (Zamus communis) is our only
representative. It is a familiar climbing plant
scrambling over hedges, having oval, pointed an
very glossy leaves ; small green flowers of which th
rs
ces
MONOCOTYLEDONS CS EGA
sexes are distinct on different plants; and bearing
large quantities of scarlet berries in the autumn.
The root abounds in starch, like that of the true
Bryony, to which this plant has, of course, no
affinity, being a monocotyledon. It is purgative,
and has been used in popular medicines, when
reduced to pulp, for ap- _
plication to bruises. ~
Hence it acquired the
name in France of “‘Herbe
aux femmes battues!”
The stems and leaves
appear to have little or
no deleterious properties ;
inasmuch as the Italians
and Arabs are said toeat
the young shoots like as-
paragus; and it is said that
goats and sheep browse
upon it with impunity.
The fruit, however, is
decidedly poisonous ; the
juicy berries being without any disagreeable flavour,
often attract children. Indeed, near Lyons, a
woman gave her child the berries to eat, which
proved fatal. The poison proved to belong to the
acrid-narcotic class.
The large fleshy rcot is dark-coloured externally, ©
&
. Tamus communis; Black
’ Bryony.
_ otherwise resembling that of the Bryony. It is
164
i
very acrid, and was meee used as a cat
medicine, and still is so by quack doctors ; ‘but
is a most dangerous remedy. Death is sure
result from an over-dose. The berries <—
emetic. ,
death, the berries of the Black Bryony: ae
paralysis of the lower extremities. nae ie
FLAG FAMILY (/ridacee).—The Iris Family ‘ds
represented in Great Britain by the Iris, Crocus,
and Gladiolus ; but a very large number of for
species are in ailtivation, i aa
YELLOW or CORN FLAG (/72s Pseud-ocori
This is common in our rivers, lakes, ote and we
known by its yellow flowers.
: _ follows. First, there is an obvious ite ‘ova
i If cut through, it will reveal the usual three c han
bers characteristic of monocotyledons, with t
oe. LOWS of ovules i in each cell. On the summit
ee _ which are erect. In the centre is ; the dere
branches into three petal- like extremities.
in * aohbenigdedoney one over each out
under a style-arm. The anthers burst |
and not inwards, which is the rule. The
a little iedge on the outer side of 1
MONOCOTYLEDONS | 165
nS e+ pust over the tip of the anther; so that the pollen
cannot reach it unless an insect alighting on the
____ leaf of the perianth called “the fall,” searching
down the holes at the base of the filament for
2 4 : honey, strikes its thorax against the anthers,
_ thus removing a quantity of pollen. The stigmatic
_ ledge can then receive it,
: on the insect flying to the
: other “falls” or to another
flower.
___ It has long been known,
even to Linnzeus, that the
Tris was dangerous to
~ cattle. +The flowers and
SS _ the rhizomes have drastic
- properties and also very
_ marked emetic ones.
All the other species of
Iris must be regarded as
"equally suspicious. : oe
‘CUCKOO-PINT FAMILY pig 43. Arum maculatum; Lords
_ (Aroidee, Fig. 43. Ms and Ladies. |
_ Lords and Ladies, or Cuckoo-pint (Arum macu-
Tatum), is our only representative of this family,
_ which contains many foreign poisonous plants. It
on well ee by its leaf, ee bree like an .
166 POISONOUS PLANTS
The structure of the spadix with its flowers will
be understood from the accompanying figures.
Beginning at the base will be seen a number of
pistils, each consisting of a round ovary, with
only a truncated stigma upon it; a figure of this
is seen in the middle of the woodcut. Above
the pistils, each of which is regarded by botanists
as a separate flower, is a ring of stamens, each
consisting of a purplish’ anther with four cells’
(see figure on the extreme right). Above the
anthers is a sort of fringe, corresponding to
the place where the spathe contracts. The stem
of the spadix is then prolonged into the purple
club-like extremity, acting as a store-house of
nutriment for the seeds to absorb in ripening.
When this takes place, the spathe withers and falls
off; the top of the spadix having surrendered
its nourishment goes too, while only the basal part
with the, now, scarlet berries remains (see figure at
the top, left). A berry is hollow and has two or
three wrinkled seeds at the bottom (see the one
cut vertically to show the seeds within it).
All parts of the plant, tuber (see figure), leaves,
and fruit, are poisonous. They contain a juice
which loses its deleterious properties when dried.
Children have been frequently attracted by the |
brightly coloured berries, notwithstanding their Sat
unpleasant smell.
As the leaves when bruised give outa disagree-
MONOCOTYLEDONS 167
able odour, they are not spontaneously eaten by
animals; and they have never been known to cause
_ death, as they quickly refuse them. Pigs which had
eaten the tubers suffered, but none died; though
it acts as an irritant and purgative.
In the case of little children who have died from
eating the fruit, cramps and convulsions preceded
death, with great internal pains and a sensation of
burning. Indeed death has followed from the
tenth to the twentieth hour after eating the
poisonous fruit, when medical interference has
been too late. The rhizome or tuber was formerly
used by medical practitioners as a purgative, but it
is now abandoned.
Besides their actual poisonous properties, the
cells of the succulent fruit abound with needle-like
crystals of calcium oxalate, sufficient to irritate the
tongue when a broken berry is placed upon it. In
a case of three children who had eaten some of
the berries, their tongues became so swollen as
to render swallowing difficult, when convulsions
followed, and two died, but one recovered.
Aruim ttalicum, found in the Isle of Wight, isa
Mediterranean variety, and has the same poisonous
properties. |
Though the root is very acrid, yet its poisonous
properties are destroyed by heat, and it then forms
a nutritious food. In Dorsetshire, in the Isle of
Portland, the plant being particularly abundant,
168 POISONOUS PLANTS
the peasants used to collect the tubers, and
having ground them intoa pulp, they were then
baked, reduced to powder, and eaten as “ Portland
Sago.”
The plant was also called Starch-wort, as it was
used for stiffening the ruffs and frills worn by
-gentlemen and ladies in the reign of Queen Eliza-
beth. Gerarde in his Herball says—‘ The most
pure and white starch is made of the rootes of the
Cuckow-pint ; but most hurtfull for the hands of the
laundresse that hath the handling of it; for it
choppeth, blistereth, and maketh the hands rough
and rugged, and withall smarting.”
Gilbert White records his observation that
thrushes will scratch up the tubers and eat them
in severe winters ; and that the berries are devoured
by pheasants.!
1 The treatment recommended by Dr. Tanner for cases
of poisoning by Lords and Ladies, or Cuckoo-pint (Arum
maculatum), is to give emetics, unless spontaneous vomiting
has freely taken place, when it may merely be encouraged
by the use of diluents. If the irritant has passed into the
intestines, it must be carried off by purgatives, especially
by castor-oil. Emollient enemata, and fomentations to the
abdomen will subsequently be found useful.
DIVISION II
_ PERIANTH INFERIOR AND OVARY SUPERIOR
LiLy FAMILY (Lz/zace@)—There is great uni-
formity in the structure of the flowers of this
family. The chief differences are as follows :-—
Since the parts of the outer whorl (calyx) are
coloured, as are those of the inner (corolla),
botanists call the whole a perzanth, as stated, and
its individual parts eaves. There are usually three
parts in each whorl, and these may be all free as
ina tulip, or all:coherent as in the garden hyacinth.
Then the stamens may rise freely from the recep-
tacle as in a tulip; or they may be adherent to the
free parts of the perianth as in the wild bluebell ;
or again, if the perianth have its parts coherent as
in the hyacinth, then the stamens are usually .
adherent to it as in the hyacinth or Lily of the
Valley.
The pistil is composed of three carpels, coherent
from base to summit as of a tulip, and may
become a capsule as in the flower of colchicum, or
- 169
170 POISONOUS PLANTS
it may be a succulent berry as in the Lily of the
Valley and Paris.
Similar variations occur in members of the great
Daffodil family (Amaryliidacee), and the reader
may be reminded that the sole difference between
these two families lies in the fact that the ovary
and fruit are always “superior” in Lélzacee, but
“inferior” in Amaryllidacee.
Some plants of this family have poisonous bulbs,
which have rarely caused mishaps, except perhaps
by having been eaten for onions. It is as well to
mention them.
SNAKE’S-HEAD FRITILLARY (/vitillaria Melea-
gris) is a native, but sometimes cultivated, known
by its “squares” of different tints upon the
perianth-leaves. It is sometimes white.
CROWN IMPERIAL (/. zmperialis), supposed to
be of Turkish or Persian origin, has long been ‘e
cultivated. It bears a circle of pendulous flowers
with a crown of foliage above them.
The bulbs have a fcetid odour, described as
being that of a fox, and are powerfully acrid and
poisonous. Even honey from the flowers is said to
be emetic.
TuLip (Zulipa, species)—We have one native a
species, the yellow-flowered 7. sylvestris.
There has recently been found in the Tulip ae
principle which has been called Tu/ipine, and if it
be introduced into the system in any quantity it
= yy
>
4g
“" MONOCOTYLEDONS 171
would not.be exempt from harmful results ; though
the bulbs of 7. sylvestris are said to be eaten by
the inhabitants of Siberia.
LILY OF THE VALLEY (Convallaria majalis).—
This occurs abundantly, wild, in certain woods in
England. It has a long creeping stem and no
bulb.
It isa harmful plant in all its parts. The flowers
are the most dangerous part, and should, therefore,
never be put into the mouth.
The scent of the Lily of the Valley, as of
Hyacinths, is too strong to allow these flowers to
remain in a bedroom.
This plant does not often produce its berries,
which are red, and would be therefore attractive to
children. But it is advisable to warn them if they
do appear, as well as against putting the flowers in
their mouths.
PARIS (Paris quadrifolia, Fig. 44)—This is a
not infrequent plant in certain woods. It is a
small herb, with usually, but sometimes more than,
four leaves in a whorl. It has green flowers, the
whorls being in fours, and subsequently a black
berry (see Fig. 44).
It is poisonous in all its parts, and the berries
must be carefully avoided. The whole plant is
emetic, and acts also as a sedative. Itis rarely that
children have been poisoned, but when they have
_ taken them, the symptoms are described as those
JAS
the kingdom, it needs no descrigees The nibs" ig :
Fig. 44. Paris quadrifolia ; Paris,
are very acrid, the deleterious principle residing
a viscous juice which pervades the whole pla
_ Other species of Scilla are much cultivated,
Be probably contain a like property. The Squil
druggists is a Mediterranean Spee ce whic
» +t 4
wae <
My fur me
Ns. chess 4
ies > Lured > t
Price eh st ¥
A | ~ » ae Sen) be a - we 4 Fat eee
: ore ely AP Ee OY ee yyy
Te, dis Wie (ee eae ALS Sie Eh viene Pgh 24K,
Se SD Re eee Aa ai Ske
- MONOCOTYLEDONS 173 Soe
| ‘ dried scales of the bulbs constitute the medicinal
a drug, A bulb of this was found attempting to
grow after having been stowed away for more
then twenty years in the Museum of St. Bartholo-
x i mew’s Hospital Medical School. ;
3 -COLCHICUM FAMILY (Melanthacee). 1 Two
tty genera only represent this family in Great Britain ;
_ the Meadow-Saffron and the Scottish Asphodel.
= COLCHICUM (Colchicum autumnale, Fig. 45).—
_ This is a local plant, but
oe ~ occurs in meadows in
ca Ja parts of England.
It is well known by its
_ rose-coloured flowers re-
cS ae those of the
_ Crocus, hence it has been
called the Meadow-
Saffron or Autumn Cro-
cus, but it has no relation-
ae ‘ship with that plant.
aS _ There are some twenty
~ European and Mediter-
: oe species, but the
ed f #%, above is the only indi- Fig. 45. Colchicum autumnale ;
¥f Colchicum. :
: ee one ; several for-
174 POISONOUS PLANTS
do not appear till the following spring, accompanied
by the large capsule. It has only been separated
from Lilies in consequence of the way its capsule
bursts. By reference to the figure it will be seen ~
that the three carpels separate from each other
entirely, so liberating their dark brown seeds, In
tulips and lilies each carpel breaks down the back
(corresponding to the outer lines in the figure).
The Colchicum is acrid, and avoided by animals,
probably from the nauseous odour.
All parts of the plant are poisonous. Drying
does not remove the deleterious property, Water —
in which the leaves, flowers, etc., are macerated,
becomes very poisonous; but the vegetative organs |
are less poisonous after the maturation of the zs
seeds; though they are always dangerous, in e
consequence of the migration of the deleterious ~~ _—
principle into the seeds on their ripening. This,
called Colchicine, is not volatile. It is in August
and September when the corms are richest in
Colchicine. a =
Both men and children have been accidentally _
poisoned ; but animals have been poisoned during
May and from the middle of September to the end
of October. In the first period, it is the leaves and —
unripe capsules which they eat, and in the second —
period it is the flowers, when they are consumed —
with the grass.
In case children should chew the petals or pick
MONOCOTYLEDONS 175
out the young seeds and eat them, as they so often
do with the Laburnum and other dangerous plants,
it is advisable to caution them against such a
practice.
Thus ‘it is recorded that in the village of
Schorren, in the Canton of Berne, a number of
children died from eating the seeds, and fowls
died from the same cause. The Colchicum is very
abundant in some of the meadows in Switzerland.
Boys have been fatally poisoned after eating
the bulbs in the field where they found them.
The Turks are said to infuse the flowers in wine
to add to its inebriating effects.
Unfortunate results have followed from misuse
of Colchicum wine for gout and rheumatism, in
which the principle Colchicine was too strong ; but
only two cases are recorded of deaths in ten
years. Mr. Blyth observes that he has seen cattle
die from the effects of eating the Meadow-Saffron,
and that farmers have had, in certain parts of the
country, extensive losses from want of care and
knowledge with regard to Colchicum poisoning.
Mr. Blyth records also a case of a man, aged
fifty, who died after taking twenty-eight Blair’s
gout-pills. They consisted of finely-ground Col-
chicum corms, but were so hard that the poison
accumulated, as they remained undigested.
An instance is recorded of a poor woman who
picked up some bulbs of the Colchicum thrown
BRE, SRC Wed Ree teen Oe eaR Para
_, as the means employed to prevent death ‘in poiso:
ie Aciaulecat drinks. ©
: described under Ramencutacem.
pam - aad eat gy |
away by a tradesman in Covent Garden m
and taking them to be onions, ate them, and
immediately. In another case a man ca
some seeds, which proved equally fatah
It is a member of the British Pharthasype nd
has caused several accidents pee careless - 2
album and Vv. nigrum). These Eye species
sometimes grown in gardens, being natives | 5 is ge
Central and Southern Europe. They bear t
spikes of greenish-white or purplish flowers,
oval-ribbed leaves, like those of the com
Plantain. ae bas.
All parts of the plants are poisonous. D.
does not remove the deleterious properties ; ~
are indeed said to contaminate other plants
made into hay together with them. oth
lig BY int anner gives emetics, purgatives, and ‘sti
Colchicum. Dr. Brunton adds Tannic or Gallic ‘a:
-* This name properly belongs to the 5 —
MONOCOTYLEDONS 177
The only case known of poisoning was of pigs
which had eaten the root; but not fatally. The
taste is acrid and burning to the mouth, so that
they are quickly rejected by animals.
No case of human beings having been poisoned
is known, as these Hellebores afford no attraction.!
1 Dr. Brunton gives as remedies to poisoning by Veratrum,
stimulants, warm coffee, and a recumbent posture. Dr.
Tanner says :—Emetics, purgatives and stimulants are the
means employed to prevent death in poisoning by these
plants. As an antidote to poisoning by Wzte Hellebore or
Veratrine, Mr. Blyth empties the stomach by pump or by an
emetic, mustard, zinc sulphate or ipecacuanha. Keep the
patient lying down. Stimulants may be administered. An
enema of hot coffee has been recommended. Keep the
body warm with wraps, hot blankets, etc.
DIVISION III
THE GRASS FAMILY (Graminea), 2 2 ie |
DARNEL (Lolium temulentum, Fig. 46).- —This - ws “=
and a variety found in flax fields (L. 4inzcola) are
credited with being the only grasses known ore
. believed to be poisonous. —
, It resembles the common is 2
rye-grass (not rye), which — ae
is another species of the es
same genus (L. perenne)
in having its “spikelets” ‘3
standing edgcwaysa al = 2 ;
the flowering stem (See. z
figure), and protected by — a
a single and much-elon- a
gated outer “ glume.” or
Wheat, it may be
| membered, has its sp 7
Fig. 46. Lolium temulentum ; lets situated sideway af
es against the stem
protected by two outer glumes.
178
MONOCOTYLEDONS 179
Each spikelet consists of about five. distinct
_ flowers. They have no perianth, but only a glume,
¢
the rib of which runs out and becomes an awn if
present, as represented in the figure. Within this
boat-shaped glume is another facing it with two
ribs, called the “pale.” These two include three
stamens (left-hand figure) and a pistil of two
coherent carpels with feathery stigmas. In addition
are two minute scales apparently of no function;
perhaps the rudiments of a lost perianth.
Darnel is a cornfield weed and an annual, and
was believed by the ancients to be injurious, for
Virgil speaks of the zfelix lolium. .
The stem and foliage are not at all poisonous,
| and often used as fodder, if at all abundant, as in
Malta. It is only the grain which is poisonous,
both to man and animals; but by no means always,
for bread has been made out of it and eaten with
impunity. On the other hand, when the grain has
been ground up with wheat, notwithstanding that
-# the latter had no odour or taste of any peculiar
kind, the bread as poisoned those who ate it. In
' the South of France it is said that Darnel is some-
times actually given to restless mules, as it tends
to produce a comatose state; but many disorgan-
izations of the digestion have occurred in cattle
when grain-siftings were given to them which con- -
_ tained, besides Darnel, seeds of Corn-cockle and
other injurious plants. —
180 POISONOUS PLANTS
Dr. Taylor could record no fatal case up to 1859. —
The effects of eating bread containing flour of
Darnel grains are described as resembling those of __
intoxication. Dr. Taylor says that the persons —
-who partook of the bread staggered about; there
was giddiness, with violent tremblings of the arms
and legs, similar to those observed in delzrium
tremens, but of much greater intensity; greatly
impaired vision followed, every object appearing of
a green colour to the sufferer; and accompanied
by great prostration of strength.' . ES
Besides bread, beer made with barley intermixed __
with seeds of Darnel has proved injurious. Inthis _
case the Darnel was put in purposely ta enhance
its intoxicating powers. It was a common practice __
in the Middle Ages. i
Comparing a grain of Darnel with one of wheat, —
the former is longer and somewhat truncated, with _
a deep groove, and enveloped in the inner glume _
r “pale”; whereas wheat is always naked. The —
starch grains are very minute, while those of wheat a
are large and round. They more resemble those
of maize or rice. 2
The poisonous property appears to belong to” “4
Bi ks Taylor recommends a free use of stimulants in the —
case of poisoning by Darvel, and castor-oil. oe4
Dr. Tanner says :—Emetics, castor-oil, and stimulants. ;
Cold affusions will often be useful, more especially if ther
be much stupor.
MONOCOTYLEDONS 181
two substances, a yellow matter and an extractive ;
but little is as yet known about their compositions.
Though poisonings have been frequent, deaths
have been rare. It is recorded that an individual
succumbed after eating bread which was made of
wheat in the proportion of one-third, with two-
thirds of Darnel.
Thirty grammes of the meal of Darnel appears
to be the limit which a man can take without
dangerous symptoms following.
The effects upon man are the production of
vertigo, and great somnolence, coupled with other
ailments.
It is said that it is particularly in wet seasons
that the dangerous properties are most conspicuous.
As it is under moist conditions that the fungus
known as Ergot attacks all kinds of grasses, it has
been suggested that the poisonous properties of
Darnel may be really due to an incipient stage of
that parasite, or to some other which does not
assume the Ergot-form. The same author describes.
the effects of Darnel as “vertigo, dimness of vision,
' headache, a sort of drowsiness and stupor.” The
result of eating rye-bread in which Ergot was.
ground up was “nausea, vomiting, pain and vertigo
in the head, soe, dilatation of the pup
delirium and stupor.”
Not only do these effects of Darnel and Ergot
~resemble one another, but Gerarde in describing
yt fs
a
ean
182 POISONOUS PLANTS |
the use of Darnel in his day (1597), siveede TI
new bread wherein Darnell is, eaten hot, causeth
drunkenness ; in like manner doth beere or ales:
wherein the sects is fallen, or put into the. mault.” | ~ :
It was also used for the same purpose that Ergot
is employed medicinally at the present day. _ i =
_ Dr. Taylor observes that rye-bread is not much pate
used in this country, but the accidental presence of a S
the Ergot (which particularly affects rye, supplying
the Secale cornutum of druggists) may sometimes
account for the symptoms of poisoning which have ay
been observed. * 2,
CRYPTOGAMS, ict
TOADSTOOLS, ETC. (Fung?).—These are ome
to every one, and the one zene commendation
- tube ; or administer by the mouth either cenisiabae me zinc
sulphate. Give a dose of castor-oil, and use an emeti
remove the remains of the fungi from the intestines. — Si ti .
lants may be given, and the body kept warm,
INDEX
Acacia, False, 77
“€ Achene,” 19
Aconite (Monkshood or Wolfs-
bane), 43
Classical refs. to, 44
Poisoning of wells by, 45
— Whole families poisoned
by, 46
Actea spicata (Baneberry), 49
“ithusa Cynapium (Fool’s Pars-
ley), 86
Agrostemma Githago (Corn-
cockle), 58
Alleluya (Wood-sorrel), 64
Almond, 18
Bitter, injurious use of, 80
Oil of, dangerous, 70,
—_—_—_
80
Flavouring, dangerous use
of, 79
AMARYLLIDACEA, I61
Amygdalus communis (Almond),
78
Anagallis arvensis (Pimpernel),
ERE BIOS
Anemone, sp., 33 ff.
—— Arrows poisoned with, 34
po eee Wood, injuring cattle, 34
Anthriscus sylvestris (Sheep’s
Parsley), 98
_ Apium graveolens (Celery), 93
_ APOCYNACEA, 133
Apocynum (Dog’s-bane), 134
Apricot Kernels, dangerous, 82
Aquilegia vulgaris (Columbine), 47
ARALIACEZ, 100
Artstolochia, 144
ARISTOLOCHIACE, 144
Aristolochine, 145
AROIDEA, 165
Artemisia, sp., 104
Arum maculatum (Lords and
Ladies), 165 ff.
Asarabacca, 145
Asarum europeum, 145
Atropa Belladonna (Deadly Night-
shade), 119
Atropine, 122
Aubergine, 118
Baneberry, 49
Batatas edulis (Sweet Potato), 115.
Beech, 155
120
—— Berries, very poisonous, 120
Classical refs. to, 121 .
Bindweed, Black, 141
Birthwort, 144
Bittersweet, 115
116 ;
Black Bindweed, 141
Husks, injurious to cattle, 155
Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade),
Berries, injurious to children, __
oD ‘ *t
es CRE
Liem ee ae i el Ge ee eet. ee. ee, -
“9: int ES ad, oe Ae Tae TR pt
rey ere, as Pate
184 INDEX _
_Ptack Bryony, 162
Eaten as Asparagus, 163
—— —— Fruit, poisonous, 163
Used for bruises, 163
Black Solanum, berries harmful,
117
Blue-bell, 172
Box, 153
Leaves used for hops, 153
injurious to animals,
153
Broom, Common, 71
Broomrape, 140
Broom, Spanish, 75
Bryonta dioica (Bryony), 83
se Sak Berries fatal to children,
Root contains starch, 85
Buttercup Family, 30
Buttercups, 35 ff.
Irritant juice of, 36 ff.
Buckthorn, 609 ff. '
Berries, effects of, 70
Dye from, 70
Buckwheat, effects on sheep, 143
Buxus (Box), 153
a
Cabaret (Asarabacca), 146
Caltha palustris (Marsh Marigold),
40
Campanula, sp., 107
- Canterbury Bell, 107
fy. CAPRIFOLIACEA, 102
; Carrot, Wild, 99
es: CARYOPHYLLACE®, 58
Cascara Sagrada, 70
: Castor- oil, 154
Seeds, fatal to children,
etc., 154
_ Celandine, 56
A drastic purgative, 57
i kcelery,:93 --
4 Used green in Malta, 93
Ceres and poppies, 52
_ Chelidonium majus (Celandine), 56
ef rf
+
(i
Christmas Rose, 42 ; ?
Cicuta virosa (Water:Hemiock 6 or
Cowbane), 93, , ey 5
‘‘ Circumscissile” dehiscence, 126 —
‘* Cleistogamous,” 63 oh tad Bas
Clematis, effects of juice, 3300
Clematis Vitalba Sea Joy) o
31
Coal-plants, 157 .
‘* Cohesion,” 23 2 . ene
Colchicine, 174 f tes
Colchicum autumnale (Meadow
Saffron or Autumn Crocus), 1 173, on
Bulbs poisonous, 135 |
Gout-pills, 175 :
Columbine, 47
Tincture of seeds dangerous,
48
ComposiT& (Composites), 104
CONIFERA, 156 Ee
Conium maculatum (Hemlock), 90
Convallaria majalis (oy of ‘he ;
Valley), 171 be
CONVOLVULACEA, I14 sett’ ;
Convolvulus arvensis (Lesser de
Bindweed), 141 ;
Cordials, etc., dangers of, 53.
Corn-cockle, 58
Corontlla, sp., 74 rusty
Counterblaste, King James’, i ee
Cowbane, 93 ron.
Cow-wheat, 139 :
Bread. — Ee:
with seed of, 139 .
Crocus, Autumn (Colchicum), 173.
Croton-oil, 154 (note) — tS
Crowfoot, Water, harmless, 35 came
Crown Imperial, 170... 52a
CRYPTOGAMS, 156, 182 Ae
Cuckoo-pint, 165
CUCURBITACEA, 83
CUPULIFERZ, 155
Cuscuta (Dodder), mae
“e
ig
“fio
\
:
-
Fagopyrum
INDEX
Cyclamen, poisons fish, 114°
Purgative, I14
sp., 113
_Cytisine, 72, 120
Cytisus, sp., 71
Daffodil, 161
- Bulb, emetic, 161
_ Dane-wort, 103
— Datura
Daphne, sp., 146
Darnel, 178
or Ergot (?), 181
Intoxicant, 180
Stramonium
apple), 123
Daturine, 122
Daucus Carota (Carrot), 99
** Declinate ” stamens, 109
Delphinium, sp., 48
Devil-in-a-bush, 49
DICOTYLEDONS, 27
Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove), 137
**Dimorphism,” 112
D10scoREACE#, 162
Dock, 142
Dodder, 115
Dog’s-bane, 134
(Thorn-
_ Dropwort, Water, kinds of, 194 ff.
‘*Drupe,” III
Dutchman’s Pipe, 145
Egg Plant, 118
Elder, Common, 102
_ Ergot, 181
ERICACE, 109
Essence of Salt of Lemons, 64
Euonymus europeus (Spindle-tree
or Prick-wood), 66
| Euphorbia, sp., 148 ff.
EUPHORBIACE, 147
Euphorbium, Gum, 154 (vo/e)
esculentum (Buck-
wheat), 143
Fagus sylvatica (Beech), 155
Field Poppy, 54
Figwort, 136
Fitches, 50
Flag, yellow, or corn, 164
** Floral receptacle,” 21
** Florets,” 104
Flower, Parts of, 16 ff.
Uses of, 109 ff.
Fly-trap (Dog’s-bane), 134
** Follicles,” 40
Fool’s Parsley, 86
Fatal to children, 89
Foxglove, all parts poisonous, 137
fFritillaria, sp., 178
Fruits, Nature of parts of, 19
Fungz (Toadstools), 182
Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrop), 162
Gall, of Scripture, 51 (zoe)
“* Genus,” 28
Glauctum /uteum(Horned-Poppy),
55
**Glumes ” of Grasses, 178
GRAMINE&, 178
Guernsey Lily, 162
“* Guides ” in Flowers, 109
GYMNOSPERMS, 27, 156
Gypsophila Struthium, 61
** Hashish,” 144
Heath Family, Edible fruits of,
109
Hebenon, 130
Hedera Helix (Ivy), 100
Hellebore, Danger of infusion, 42
—— Injury to cows, 42
sp., 41
—— White and Black, 176
Hemlock, Classical refs. to, 90, 91
—— Effects on animals, 92
Extract of, dangerous, g1
Influence of climate on, 92
Henbane, 124
—— Seeds, used for fattening
cattle, 126
Root, eaten for chicory, 126 —
186
Henbane Seeds, for tooth-ache,
127
Heracleum Sphondylium (Hog-
weed), 99
Hogweed, 99
Horned-Poppy, 55
Hyacinth, Scent of, injurious, 171
Hyoscyamus niger (Henbane), 124
Indian Peas, 77
Tobacco, injudicious use of,
108
‘* Inferior,” 22, 27
Tonidium, 58
Tpecacuanha, 58
IRIDACE#, 164
Tris, sp. (Flag), ), 164
Dangerous to cattle, 165
Ivy Berries, dangerous to children,
~ 100, IOI
Jalap, 115
Jews’ Apple, 118
Juniperus, sp. (Juniper), 160
Kalmia latifolia, 110
—— Highly narcotic, 110
— Poisons the flesh of hares,
IIo
Labrador Tea, III
Laburnum, 72
Children often poisoned by,
72
_ Lactucarium, 106
_Lactuca, sp., 105
_ Lactucine, 106
- Larkspur, 48
ae* Latex,” 152
_ Lathyrus, sp., 76
— _Laudanum, 53
Laurel-water, dangerous, O1
— -Ledum, sp., 111
—__ ** Legumen,” 40
ue ¥ _ LEGUMINOS&, 70
Lesser Celandine, 9.1.
Lesser Stitchwort, 61
Lettuce, Wild, 105 ©
Leucojum (Snowflake),
‘*Ligulate” corolla, 104 __
Ligustrum vulgare (Privet), 1
Lily, 169 pce
—~ of the Valley, very I hart
171 La
Linaria, sp. (Toadflax), 138
Lobelia, sp., 107 ff. ¥ .
Locust-tree, 77
Lolium temulentum (Darel
LORANTHACEA, 147
Lords and Ladies, 165 _
Scarlet) berries, in
: -"
> + 4
162 as
4
ous, 167
168
Lousewort, 138 -
Love-in-a-mist, 49 ©
Lupin, 75
Lupinose, 75
Lupinus, sp., 75 ff.
Mad-apple, 118 _
Maladie des bois, 155
Manchineel, 148
Mandragora, 122
Ancient use of, 123,
Mandrake, 122
Marsh Marigold, 40
Melampyrum, sp., 139 Ave
Melon Family, 83 ;
Mercurialis, sp. (Mer
Mezereon, 146 ah,
Mistletoe, berries harr
Monkshood (Aconi onite), 43
MONOCOTYLEDONS, 2;
Morion, 123 _ ae
Morphine, a i
pes cx 10.
Narcissus, sp., 161 .
Bulbs emetic, 167
“‘ Natural Order ” (or Family), 26
Nerine, sp., 162
Nerium Oleander, 133
_ Nicot, Jean, 129
Nicotiana, sp., 127
_ Nicotine, 128
_ Nigella damascena (Love-in-a-
- mist), 49
__ Nightshade, Deadly, 8 ie)
_—— Woody, 115
Oak, 155.
Young foliage injurious to
cattle, 155
nanthe, sp. (Water Dropworts),
| ff.
94 tl.
Old Man’s Beard, 31
- OLEACEA, III
Oleander, all parts poisonous, 133
Soldiers poisoned by, 134
Opium, 50
OROBANCHACE&, 140
Orobanche, sp. (Broomrape), 140
Oxalate of Lime, 143
Oxalic acid, 64
OXALIDACEZ, 63
Oxalis Acetosella (Wood-sorrel),
63
** Pales” of Grasses, 179
_ Panaisie, 99
* Panicle,” 136
_ Papaver, sp. (Poppy), 50 ff.
__ .» PAPAVERACE, 50
---PAPILIONACEA, 71
Parsley, Beaked, 98
ae ~ Parsnip, Cow, 99
Water, go
27 ke ‘Pasque- flower, 33
___“ Path-finders” on Corollas, 109
ve - Peach-nut oil, 79
i ee sp. (Lousewort), 138
INDEX
Paris quadrifolia (Herb Paris),171
137
‘© Perianth,” 27
Periwinkle Family, 133
Phaseolus vulgaris — (Scarlet
Runner), 74
Pimpernel (injurious to birds), 113
Pine Family, 156
Pink Family, 58
Poison, Definition of, 14
POLYGONACEA, I4I
Polygonum, sp. 141
Poor Man’s Weather-glass, 113
Poppy, 50 ff.
— Classical refs. to, 54
—— Field, 54
Heads, 53
Portland Sago, 168
Potash, Binoxalate of, 64
Potato, 117
Raw, harmful to cattle, 118
Prick-wood, 67
Primrose Family, 112
PRIMULACEA, I12
Privet, III
Berries, injurious to children,
Ii2
PRUNE&, 78
Prunus, sp., 78 ff.
Prussic acid (Egyptian refs, to), 89
Plants yielding, 82
Quercus, sp. (Oak), 155
RANUNCULACE&, 30
Ranunculus, sp. (Buttercup), 35 i
Receptacular Expansion, 21 re:
Tube, 22 -
Regular and Irregular flowers, %
24 ae cA
RHAMNACEA, 69 ee
Rhamnus, sp. (Buckthorn), 69
Rheum, sp. (Rhubarb), 143. =.
Rhinanthine, 139 yea
Rhododendron, sp., 109 ff. 2 oa ay
Medical uses of, 110 £
Rhubarb, 143 — peers:
os
a
ae
aL: te ee Soe i Faw & Ons Oe a
25 Nee ab ea ae
¥ bina se y a ee se he
eas \ ; “* : - , Sig
~
x ~ 7 *
a >
Ricinus communis -(Castor-oil),
154
Robinia Pseud-acacta, 77
ROSACE, 77
Rumex, sp. (Dock), 142
Salt of Lemon, 142
Sorrel, 64
“‘ Samara,” III
Sambucus, sp. (Elder), 102
_ Santonin, 105
__— Effects on sight, 105
- Saponaria officinalis (Soapwort),
are
Saponine, 61
: ‘< Save ” of Chaucer, 61 ‘
; Savin, 160
Scarlet Runner, 74
Sczlla, 172
Scorpion Senna-tree, 74
Scrophularia, sp. (Figwort), 136
- Scrophularine, 134
4 Secale cornutum (Ergot), 182
Sheep’ s Sorrel, 142
Sium, sp. (Water Parsnip), 98
Snake’s-head Fritillary, 170
Snowdrop, 162
‘ Snowflake, 162
: Soapwort, 61
on SOLANACEA, I15
_ Solanum, sp., 115 ff.
Dulcamara (Bittersweet or
-__ Woody Nightshade), 116
4 - Sorrel, injurious to children, 142
iar Southernwood, 104
:.
Pe _ Sowbread, 114
__ _. Sparteine, 72
= _ Spartium — junceum (Spanish
Age Broom), 75 __
__ Spear-wort, 38
Sa Species,” 25
—-—s ** Spikelets” of Grasses, 178
we8 Sainach, Wild, 152-
Be _ Spindle-tree, 66
_ Spirea, sp., 83
\
Spurge, 148 ff.
Caper, 149 —
—— Family, 147. a ss
Fatal to boys, 151
— Laurel, besrees dange r
146
— Milky juice, “dangerous BE.
of, 148 2 Faby:
Starch- -wort, 168 : ah ee
Stellaria graminea, injurious: ta.
horses, 61.2 tts
‘¢ Superior,” 27 aS fe
Swallow-wort, 57 Re ee
Sweet Potato, 115°. oie ae
Syrup of Poppies, dangerous, 53 ae :
Tamus communis (Black Hap
162 ! , . Re
Taragon, 105 te Gy *
Taxus baccata (Yew), AF ha
Thorn-apple, 123 fae vi ~s :
Seeds poisonous, as ie Sees
THYMELACEA, 146 i oh
Toadflax, 138 ar
Toadstool, a// to be avoided, ‘18
Tobacco, 127 *
Effects on athletes, 131 he
Probably
Gerarde (1597), 130
16th century, 129
—— Indian, 108
Introduction of, 129
— Juice, dangerous one
128 ;
— Mentioned is Shake
130°59 PI
Traveller’s Joy,. 3r ES ee
Tulip, 170 ype
UMBELLIFERA, 8 Ss
** Venation,” < 28
Veratrum, sp. (whit
Hielepas ae
Fe
INDEX 189
Verbascum Thapsus (Great | Wood Anemone, 34
Mullein), 135 Sorrel, 63
Vetchling, Yellow, 76 Woody Nightshade (Bittersweet),
VIOLACE, 57 115
Violet, 57
Water Dropwort, roots eaten as
parsnips, 94 ff.
Hemlock or Cowbane, 93
Pepper, 141
**Whorls,” Floral, 17 ff,
Wild Hyacinth, 172
Wistaria sinensts, 74
Wolfsbane (Aconite), 43
Woorari poison, 114
Wormseed, 104
Wormwood, 105
Yellow Rattle, 139
Yew, 157
—— Classical refs. to, 157
Old foliage especially danger-
ous to cattle, 157
Seeds, dangerous, 159
THE END
_—
NGAY.
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