70 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



(Lint ; in fact, it is sufficiently plentiful to make the use of the 

 leaves a pot-herb decidedly dangerous. Numerous cases 

 of poisoning have been reported from this cause. The poison 

 is said to act by depriving the blood of its protecting calcium. 

 In C()(jking, the acid may be neutralized by the addition of 

 small (juantities of calcium carbonate, that is, of ordinary lime- 

 stone. It is likely that in regions where the water is "hard" 

 it contains enough calcium carbonate to render any part of 

 the plant harmless, but it is just as well to discard the leaf- 

 blades. The leaf-stalks or petioles are never poisonous. 



Goat-Weed in Idaho — In the early '60's a hardy ad- 

 venturer from New York State pushed his way westward to- 

 ward the Oregon Trail. Finding the valley of the Snake River 

 to liis liking, he tarried a while and finally established a stock 

 ranch in a fertile meadow where a little creek empties into the 

 Blackf oot River. Having luiilt a cabin he went back and 

 bronglu his bride from the Catskills. She missed the fam- 

 iliar garden flowers of her childhood days and sent back for 

 roots and seeds from her grandmother's garden. Many of 

 these failed to grow in the new environment, but hollyhocks, 

 mallows, ox-eye daisies, and the goatweed {Aegopodiuui 

 pixlayraria) thrived and spread until the garden was a wonder 

 in the wilderness. Later the Blackfoot Indians took the war- 

 patii and frightened away the ranchers, driving off the stock 

 and burning the buildings. The buildings were never relniilt 

 and the wonderful garden soon disappeared, but the ox-eye 

 daisies still bloom along the creek and the goatweed found 

 refuge among the sage-brush where it can still be found. The 

 original gardener still lives in a ranch up the valley and goes 

 every June to pick "grandmother's border plant." This year 

 one of the granddaughters sent me a fragment with a request 

 for it^ name. — Mrs. M. H. Sotli. Poiotcllo. Idaho. 



