.S4 The A^koetablk Exemtks of Mankind. 



eiulowed with quixlities Avliich may be productive of injury to 

 mail or to other creatures that are useful to him. 



The first example given l)y Professor Elliot is that of a fungus 

 which infests the corn plant, living inside the leaf and stem, and 

 with its delicate food-sucking threads bores among the live cells 

 and absorljs food from them. Tliis is said at times to have rlone 

 immense damage to the corn fiel<ls of America and also in Cape 

 Colony. When it is considered how large a part of the food 

 supply which tliis country needs comes from America, it will be 

 seen how much injury may be done to ourselves as well as to the 

 States by crop failures occasioned liy the prevalence of this 

 destructive fungus and other plant diseases. The entire loss in 

 that country from these causes has been estimated at 150,000,000 

 dollars annually. Then we have a large class of plants which are 

 poisonous. The oleander, a lovely garden shrub, is one of these. 

 All parts of it are poisonous. The cyclamen, one of the most 

 beautiful of flowers, is another. The corms or fleshy ])odies at 

 the foot of the stem are of poisonous quality, although it is said 

 when cooked tliey are no longer hurtful. The poor man's 

 weather-glass, so called from its closing its petals in damp or wet 

 weather, which produces bright-crimson or dark-blue specks of 

 flowers in the stubble, is another example. The arum-maculatum, 

 or wake-robin, is also poisonous — supposed to be so for its pro- 

 tection from pigs and wild boars, which are given to grubbing up 

 and eating the underground creeping stem. The upas tree of 

 Java (Autiaris toxicaria) was at one time the subject of much 

 exaggeration l)y a Dutch surgeon, wlio de,scril)ed it as fatal to 

 other plants or animals and birds in its neighbourhood or coming 

 near it, but which, nevertheless, has a poisonous property residing 

 in its bark which jiroduces frightful irritation, and the juice of 

 which is used as one of the ingredients of poisoned arrows. 

 Other well-known poisonous plants are scabiosa succisa, or 

 Devil's bit, which produces violent inflammation of the mouth 

 and tongue; digitalis purpurea, or foxglove; aconite, strychnine, 

 strophanthus seeds. Calabar bean, and Muavi bark. At the same 

 time it is well known tliat some of our most valuable medicines 

 are derived from these poisonous plants when administered in 

 minute doses. The fungus which causes dry-rot in houses or 

 ships, and sometimes works havoc in woods by attacking live 

 timber trees, is a very destructive agent ; but it has important 

 uses also in its proper place, its design being to l)reak up dead 



