82 POISONOUS PLANTS 



having the odour of bitter almonds, are to be 

 considered as poisonous when taken in considerable 

 quantity. 



Many animals have been poisoned on the 

 Continent by eating the leaves of the cherry- 

 laurel, both sheep and oxen. It is recorded that 

 a bull which had gained a prize (at Rovoretto in 

 Italy) was decorated with a garland of laurel ; the 

 bull ate the garland and fell down poisoned on the 

 spot. 



In England it appears to be much less, if at all, 

 harmful. The present writer's cows completely 

 ruined a long laurel hedge adjoining the field in 

 which they lived ; but this abnormal food did no 

 harm either to themselves or the milk they 

 produced. This was at Ealing, near London. 



The kernels of several members of the genus 

 Prunus, as Bird-cherry, Peach, Nectarine, Damson, 

 and Apricot, contain this poison. Thus a child, 

 aged two, suffered severely in consequence of 

 having eaten ten or twelve kernels of the apricot ; 

 and a child, aged five, died from eating a large 

 quantity of the kernels of Gean cherries {Pniniis 

 Aviiint), 



All the following plants yield, with appropriate 

 treatment, more or less prussic acid: — Amygdalus 

 commtinis^ Prunus Lauro-cerasus, kernels of plum 

 (P. domestica)] bark, leaves, flowers and fruit ot 

 the wild service-tree {P. Padus); kernels of the 



