lo Oct., 1908.] Stock Eating Clippings from Gardens. 



another three days after, having taken no feed. There see;ned to be 

 no violent pain. They laid quietlv and breathed normally. Their excre- 

 ment was very thin and dark coloured. The one that recovered purged 

 once what was like dark water." 



Three specimens were .sent for investigation, two of which were harm- 

 leiss, but the third was a shoot of the common ok-ander (Nerium oleander) 

 which common garden shrub is strongly poisonous. As in the case of 

 manv poisonous plants the leaves have a bitter warning taste, and contain 

 a narcotic poison as do all other parts of the plant. In some parts of 

 the old world the peasantry have been accustomed to use the wood and 

 bark to poison rats ; while in France the powdered plant has sometimes 

 been used for the destruction of lice, fleas and similar insects. The 

 ancient use of the powdered leaves as a remedy for snake bite seems how- 

 ever to have been founded on a mere superstition. The bark of the 

 East Indian oleander (Nerium Piscidium) when placed in water poi-sons 

 the fish in the immediate neighbourhood, and is often used by the natives 

 for fish capture. 



It was only last year that many deaths of stock, and even of some 

 children, took place from eating the highly poisonous Hemlock {Coniiim 

 macidatum) which had been introduced in many gardens under the in- 

 correct name of the " Carrot or Parslev Fern," and had thence been 

 allowed to run wild. The plant has been proclaimed for the whole 

 State and the local authorities in the districts concerned thus given the 

 power to insist on its suppression where growing wild, or even if grown 

 in a garden as a decorative plant. In this case the plant gives warning 

 of its poisonous character by its objectionable mouse-like smell and un- 

 pleasant taste, which does not always however suffice to prevent its being 

 eaten either by .stock or children. In addition many poisonous plants 

 have practically no warning taste 01 smell al all. 



As instances of common garden plants which are poisonous to stcck 

 when eaten in any quantity the following may be mentioned : Aconite, 

 Tobacco (Xicotiana), Lobelia, Hemp (Cannabis), Castor-oil plant 

 (Ricinus), Yew (Taxus baccata), Hemlock (Conium maculatum), Fools 

 Parsley (^thusa Cvnapium), Oleander, many Solanums, Belladonna 

 (Atropa), Thorn Apple (Datura Stramonium), Poppies, Larkspurs 

 (Delphinium), Foxgloves (Digitalis), and many others. !NTost Lilies, 

 Hyacinths, Amaryllids, Crinums, Bulbine, and Narcissi, when eaten in any 

 quantity, usually cause purging or sickness, and in extreme cases have 

 been known to cause death. Indeed, some members of the Liliacese 

 (Veratrum, etc.) and Iridese (Cape Tulip, Honieria collina) contain 

 active poisonous principles of which a small quantity acts as a fatal dose. 

 Again many hairy, pricklv or chaffy garden plants act injuriously to 

 stock when eaten, either bv irritating the tender lining membrane of the 

 alimentary canal, or by tending to ball together in the stomach, etc., 

 reducing the capacity of the digestive tract and ultimately blocking it. 



No further illustrations of the danger of allowing stock to have access 

 to the clippings or cuttings from a garden should be needed. Quite apart 

 from the dangers of poisoning or of digestive derangement, we have the 

 well known fact that a large number of garden plants when eaten in any 

 quantity bv milch cows impart a distinctive and often an unpleasant 

 flavour to the milk or butter and in some ca.ses make the milk unsuit- 

 able for the use of tender infants. This is due to the fact that the 

 more volatile principles in the animal's food usually appear to a greater 

 or less extent in its milk, and although I know of no authentic case in 

 which the milk from a cow which had been grazing on poisonous herbage 



