I902 Qtiestions and Answers — Correspondence. 75 



Questions and Answers. 



Botany. 



I. What are the most common plants that may be ttrmGdi poisonous ? 



Answer. Common nettle ( Urtica dioica) ; small nettle ( U. urens) ; 

 the introduced plant Primula obconica ; the hemp-nettle {Galeopsis 

 TetraJiit) ; and the Galeopsis versicolor^ — these all acting by contact. 

 Monk's-hood {Aconituni napellus) ; the great spearwort and lesser 

 spearwort {Ratiuticulus lingua and flavitnula) ; the celery-leaved crow- 

 foot {Ra?tunculus sceleratus) ; hemlock i^Conium maculatum) ; the bitter- 

 sweet {Solanwn dulcamara)., — all these acting through being eaten. 

 An excellent paper dealing with these and other poisonous plants 

 appeared in the ' Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Nat. and Micro. 

 Soc.,' vol. iii., 1896, p. 152, by Mr Mark King, to which refer. 



(The Editor invites questions for this column on any branch of field- 

 work : the questions and answers will be printed together. Correspond- 

 ents may send the answer to their own questions, if the object is to 

 draw attention to a point of interest.) 



Correspondence. 



Reptilia. 



" I WAS walking up the Back Lane, Liskeard, Cornwall, about the 

 middle of one very hot and sunny day, when I came upon a female 

 adder with two young ones enjoying a wriggle in the sand. I intended 

 to kill the mother and capture the two young ones, but to my astonish- 

 ment the little ones took shelter in the mother's mouth so promptly, as 

 if to the manner born, that I watched with interest the mother take to 

 the hedge, where she disappeared. The two young adders were very 

 much like young lampreys, about one-third grown. I was only about 

 three yards distant from the mother. — Yours, &c., Robert Dunstan, 

 M.R.C.S." 



(See also 'Westminster Gazette' of October i, 1901, and following 

 issues. The above is the only instance we have known of a medical 

 man having testified to witnessing this disputed occurrence, and it is 

 therefore of much interest. — Ed.) 



" I should like to record an instance of an adder swallowing its young 

 which I witnessed. I was about seven years old, and was walking with 

 two nurses in the woods at Bryanston, Dorset. We were in a broad 

 green drive, and came rather suddenly upon an adder lying in the middle 

 of it, the reptile's head towards us and a number of young ones round 



