48 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June- July 



has blossomed in the spring. The local name for Zygadenus is 

 in many places " Lobelia." and cases of poisoning are so common 

 in Oregon and Nevada that the term "lobeliaed" has been used 

 to indicate the result from this kind of poisoning. In one band 

 of sheep 2,000 were poisoned and 100 died, in another 200 were 

 poisoned and 90 died. Zygadenus is common is southern Alberta 

 and throughout British Columbia. Veratrum viride, American 

 Hellebore, is well known "to be poisonous both to man and 

 animals, but as the plant is acrid it is not relished by stock; 

 young animals sometimes eat it with fatal results; chickens have 

 been killed by eating the seeds. Trilliums have long been con- 

 sidered poisonous, and the roots are certainly emetic. The 

 fruit should be regarded with suspicion. The underground roots 

 of Iris versicolor, Blue Flag, are known to be very poisonous. 

 As the roots are very acrid there would be little danger of their 

 being eaten were it not for the resemblance of the commoner 

 name to that of Calamus, Sweet Flag; if eaten it would prove 

 seriously if not fatally poisonous. It was not until 1875 that it 

 was discovered that at least two species of Cypripedium, C. 

 hirsutum and C. pubescens, produce dermatitis very much 

 resembling that produced by Poison Ivy. Prof. MacDougal's 

 experiments with stems and leaves upon individuals have shown 

 that more than half of them were affected. It was discovered 

 that these plants are provided with glandular hairs which cover 

 the whole surface of the stem and leaves and contain a poisonous 

 oil which is especially abundant at the fruiting season. Later 

 experiments by Nestler have shown that C. hirsutum is by far 

 the most poisonous species. 



Many species of Ranunculacece are poisonous, but the genus 

 Delphinium is the only one to which the poisoning of stock in 

 large numbers has been directly traced, and . in Alberta , D. glaucum 

 has done the most injury to cattle. It is in the earlv spring, 

 before green food is abundant, that the worst effects are noticed 

 and experiments have also shown that the plants are more 

 poisonous at that time. Observations in the United States have 

 also shown that very frequently after a light snow-fall other 

 vegetation is covered and larkspur, being the onlv green food, 

 is eaten. Sheep are not often affected by this species probablv 

 because they are not on the high ranges where it grows at a time 

 when more palatable food is not to be had. D. Menziesii, how- 

 ever, which grows in southern Alberta and throughout British 

 Columbia is often eaten by sheep. Of 600 sheep that were 

 affected on one range in Montana in May, 1897, 250 died. Other 

 species of Canadian Delphiniums are nearly, if not quite, as 

 poisonous as the two mentioned above, but, except on Vancouver 



