THE LOCO WEEDS. 
BY ALICE EASTWOOD. 
Considering how much the loco weed has been the subject of dis- 
cussions, experiments and even laws, it is surprising how little is 
really known about its identity, its properties and its effects. A 
survey of what has been done by chemists and other scientists seems 
only to increase the confusion. They disagree upon most impor- 
tant points, some asserting its poisonous character and proving it 
by experiments while others seem to be as positive that loco poison 
is a superstition of the farmer and stockman. 
When a botanist tries to learn from the people of different local- 
ities which plant they regard as loco, he finds that each district has 
its own loco weed, and he is soon at sea amid the genera and species 
of Leguminose and also of other orders of plants. However, they 
all firmly believe that such a weed exists and they positively know 
that it destroys their cattle and horses. They will generally tell the 
inquirer that loco means crazy, and that when a horse becomes lo- 
coed he takes every little irrigating ditch for a river and every ant 
hill for a mountain. 
The object of this paper is not to clear the mystery by an account 
of original experiments or by the elaboration of new theories. To 
briefly set forth what has been learned, so as to form a basis for ob- 
servation and research, is all that will be attempted. 
Until recently, botanists have recognized only Astragalus mollis- 
simus and Oxytropis Lamberti as loco weeds; but now Astragalus 
Mortoni, Crotalaria sagittalts, Hosackia Purshiana, Sophora sericea, 
Oxytropis deflexa, O. multiflorus, Malvastrum coccineum and Cory- 
dalis aurea var. occidentalis, are all under the ban. F. W. Ander- 
son, in an article in the Botanical Gazette for July, 1889, adds Leu- 
cocrinum montanum, Fritillaria pudica and Zygadenus elegans. The 
first is common around Denver in the early spring, and is generally 
considered harmless to stock beyond tainting the milk of the cows 
that feed upon it before the grass comes. 
ment of Pharmacy of the 
Professor L. E. Sayre of the Depart 
Kansas State University, made a chemical examination of the leaves 
of a loco plant, which he failed to name, and his report was publish- 
ed in the Druggists’ Bulletin, May, 1889. The results were unsat- 
isfactory, some slight evidences of a toxic alkaloid being discovered. 
