156 Poisonous Plants. [Sess. 



poisonous plants, when growing near the sea-shore have at 

 times been used as celery by seafaring men, and dangerous 

 results have followed in consequence. The true hemlock 

 (Conium maculatum), a widely distributed plant, is well known 

 as a dangerous poison. Three cows, belonging to Messrs 

 Munro, hotel-keepers at Loch Aweside, died from eating the 

 roots of the hemlock, which had been dug out of some waste 

 land in the neighbourhood and cast into heaps along the side 

 of the loch. In October 1894 two boys residing in Greenock, 

 while out in the country walking, dug up some roots of hem- 

 lock and ate them. They were shortly afterwards seized with 

 great pain and vomiting, and were removed to the Greenock 

 infirmary, where they were found to be so ill that it was 

 doubtful if they would recover. 



That wholesome tuber, the potato, has its share of dele- 

 terious properties, although not in the part that is eaten. Its 

 near relation, the bitter-sweet (Solarium dulcamara), has scarlet 

 berries, which are poisonous, and children have died from eating 

 them. S. nigrum, an annual, with black berries, is likewise 

 of doubtful character. Even the holly, with its scarlet berries, 

 so closely associated with the festivities of the opening year, is 

 credited with noxious properties. At Chelmsford, a child, after 

 eating twenty or thirty berries, was taken ill, and died. Cattle 

 have been killed by eating the foliage of the yew, another 

 plant used in Christmas decoration. Three heifers were lately 

 found dead on the farm of Pinnaclehill, near Kelso. They 

 were grazing in a field on the farm, and it is supposed that 

 they had been poisoned by eating branches of the yew. In 

 the Court of Session a few years ago a clergyman from Wig- 

 townshire had to pay a considerable sum in damages as the 

 result of a workman stopping up gaps in a hedge with branches 

 of the yew, whereby his neighbours' cattle were killed by 

 browsing on the branches and foliage. 



Amidst the large family of the Grasses, of which there are 

 about 4000 different species known to botanists, darnel 

 (Lolium temtdentum) is one of the very few that are poison- 

 ous. This, indeed, has been questioned, as what has not ? 

 Sir J. D. Hooker says of it, " Very poisonous " ; while Dr 

 Lindley states, " The seeds, mixed with wheat, have killed 

 persons who ate bread prepared from such flour." 



