2-20 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 



For the first time I gather the poison-oak 

 (Rhus toxicodendron}, a pretty plant, that 

 climbs by rootlets, like the ivy, and trails grace- 

 fully over both rocks and trees. Some persons 

 are most seriously affected by it, especially such 

 as are of fair complexion, if they only venture 

 near where it grows. It produces swelling about 

 the eyes, dizziness, and fever; the poisonous ef- 

 fects are most virulent when the plant is burst- 

 ing into leaf. I picked, examined, and walked 

 amidst the trees over which it twined thickly, 

 but experienced not the slightest symptoms of 

 inconvenience. Still, I know others that suffer 

 whenever they come near it. Where the poison- 

 oak thrives, there too grows a tuber known to 

 the settlers as Bouncing Bet, to the botanist 

 as Saponaria officinalis, the common soapwort. 

 The tuber is filled with a mucilaginous juice 

 which, having the property of entangling air 

 when whisked up, makes a lather like soap. This 

 lather is said to be an unfailing specific against 

 the effects of the poison-oak the poison and its 

 antidote crowing side bv side ! 



O O v 



