40 HEI.ENIUM TENUIFOLIUM. SLENDER-LEAVED SNEEZEWORT. 



February, 1S72. The plant, in spite of all its beauty, seems to be 

 extremely poisonous to some species of cattle. It appears, from 

 a report by Dr. Lewis, that in 1866, during the civil war, many 

 of the horses of a company of cavalry stationed near Goodman, 

 Miss., died from eating of the Sneezewort. Dr. Galloway, of 

 Kosciusko, Miss., noted the effect produced on horses by this 

 plant. " The first effect observable," says this author, " after a 

 horse or mule has swallowed a bit of the weed, is a twitchinfj of 

 the eyes and a dodging of the head, as if to avoid some imagi- 

 nary blow." According to the same investigator the twitching 

 of the muscles gradually extends to other parts of the body, and 

 the sjjasms increase until death ensues, or the animal is relieved 

 by the administration of oil. Horses, however, rarely touch the 

 plant, unless they are pressed by hunger, or are hitched near by it. 

 Dr. Galloway gives an account of a drove of twenty-five ironies 

 from Texas, which A\ere turned into a lot where some of these 

 herbs grew, and of which eleven died from the effects of the poison. 

 Sheep, on the contrary, seem to eat the plant without injury; 

 and it does not appear to be fatal to cows, as Dr. Hale merely 

 remarks that it imparts a bitter taste to their milk. Upon 

 the human system it produces the same effect as on horses, as 

 shown by the case (reported by Dr. Galloway) of several persons 

 who had eaten of flour with which some of the plants had been 

 ground up. Dr. Bigelow thinks that the Sneezewort, if properly 

 handled, may become of great value in nervous diseases. 



The Hcleniiim tauiifolutni was quite unknown to the earlier 

 botanists, and was first discovered by Nuttall in his expeditions 

 in Arkansas towards the latter part of his career. Its home is 

 from Georgia to Louisiana, according to Prof. Wood. On the 

 western side of the Mississippi it is found from Southern Texas 

 northward to Southern Kansas. 



Explanation of the Plate. — i. Upper portion of a flowering branch. — 2. Disk floret, 

 with its immature achene, enlarged. 



