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 Leguminosae 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 Laniberti as loco weeds ; but now Astragalus 

 Mortoni, Crotalaria sagittalis, Hosackia Purshiana, Sophora sericea, 

 Oxytropis dejlexa, O. multiflorus, Malvastrtim cocci?ieum and Cory- 

 dalis aurea var. occidentalism are all under the ban. F. W. Ander- 

 son, in an article in the Botanical Gazette for July, i88g, adds Leu- 

 cocrinum montamim, Fritillaria pudica and Zygadenus elegayis. 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. 



Professor L. E. Sayre of the Department ot Pharmacy of the 

 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. 



