456 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Poisonous properties. Leaves, roots, and stems are acrid; same properties 

 as in the Pasque Flower. 



Anemone canadensis L. Meadow Anemone 



A hairy perennial from 1 ft. to 18 inches high; involciire 3-leaved bear- 

 ing a long peduncle or a pair with a 2-leaved involucre at the middle; radical 

 leaves long, petioled, 5-7 parted or cleft; sepals white 6-9 lines long; head of 

 fruit globose, achenes flat, tipped with stout style. 



Distribution. In low grounds, meadows, especially westward from Lab- 

 rador to Saskatchewan, Colorado to Maryland and New England. 



Poisonous properties. All parts of the plants with acrid properties. 



5. Clematis 



Climbing vines or perennial herbs, more or less woody; leaves opposite, 

 slender petioled, pinnately compound, lobed, or entire ; sepals 4 or rarely more, 

 petal-like; petals none; stamens numerous; ovaries free; the fruit an achene 

 1-seeded ; style long, persistent, plumose, silky, or occasionally naked. About 

 100 species of wide distribution, abundant in temperate regions. The most com- 

 mon species in Northern States is the Clematis virginiana, in the South and 

 Rocky Mountains, C. ligusticifolia ; and in the South, the C. Viorna, and C. 

 Pitcheri. The European C. vitalba contains anemonol. 



Clematis virginiana L. Virgin's Bower 



Perennial, climbing, with leaflets mostly broadly ovate, acute, cut low; 

 flowers axillary, clusters panicled, polygamo-dioecious, white; the style persist- 

 ent, plumose. The western C. ligusticifolia is nearly like this species. 



Distribution. From Canada to Florida, and Kansas, Nebraska, northward. 

 C. ligusticifolia is common throughout the Rocky Mountains from Western 

 Nebraska to the Pacific Coast. 



Clematis Pitcheri Torr. & Gray 



Perennial herb with pinnately compound leaves, high upper leaves often 

 simple; flowers large, solitary, on long peduncles; usually nodding calyx, bell- 

 shaped; dull purplish sepals, with narrow and slightly margined recurved points; 

 tails of the fruit naked or shortly villous. From Southern Indiana to Central 

 Iowa, and Kansas and Texas. 



Poisonous properties. J. U. and C. G. Lloyd, in their Drugs and Medicines 

 of North America, report the medical properties of several species of the genus 

 Clematis as follows : 



It imparts a rank taste, which, after prolonged chewing, becomes acrid and irritating, 

 although at first it is only disagreeable. 



Dr. Rusby also mentioned the poisonous character of the species of Cle- 

 matis. In Cuba, one species of the genus is used in case of tooth-ache to 

 blister the face, and this as well as another species is used in the same way for 

 rheumatism. Dr. J. C. White refers to the European Clematis recta as produc- 

 ing blisters and often ulcers, and causing the eyes to water and become inflamed. 



An infusion of the plant in oil has been used to cure the itch, and violent inflammation 

 of the skin has been produced by friction with it. 



