CHAPTER XXIX. 
EFFECTS OF SNAKE VENOM UPON PLANTS AND THE 
PROCESS OF GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 
Under the heading “Cytolytic action of snake venom upon micro-organ- 
isms” the energetic destructive action of various venoms upon unicellular 
plants (bacteria) has already been described. Now it is of some interest to 
find out whether venom has any influence on the vital processes of multi- 
cellular plants. The literature on this subject is rather meager and there 
are only a few experiments to be referred to here. 
In 1854 B. J. Gilman ' inoculated several small but vigorous and perfectly 
healthy vegetables with the point of a lancet well charged with venom. The 
next day they were withered and dead. No control was made, nor were the 
size of the plants and the amount of venom employed stated. 
In the same year Salisbury? experimented with the venom of Crotalus 
adamanteus upon four young shoots of the lilac (Syringa vulgaris), a small 
horse-chestnut of one year’s growth (Esculus hippocastanum), a corn plant 
(Zea mays), a sunflower plant (Helianthus annuus), and a wild cucumber 
vine. 
Without testing the toxicity of the venom on animals, he introduced 
the venom into the plant, just beneath the inner bark, with the aid of the 
point of a pen-knife. The quantity of venom was that which adhered to the 
point of the instrument. No visible effect from the poison was perceptible 
until about 6 hours after it had been inoculated. At this time, the leaves 
above the wound, in each case, began to wilt. The bark in the vicinity of 
the incision exhibited scarcely a perceptible change. 96 hours after the 
operations nearly all the leaf-blades in each of the plants, above the wounded 
part, were wilted and apparently quite dead. On the fifth day the petioles 
and bark above the incisions began to lose their freshness, and on the sixth 
day they were considerably withered. On the tenth day they began to show 
slight signs of recovery. On the fifteenth day new but sickly-appearing leaves 
began to show themselves on the lilacs, and the other plants began to show 
slight signs of recovery in the same way. Neither of the plants was entirely 
deprived of life. The edges and apices of the leaves were the parts first 
attacked. There was no effect on the leaves below the point of inoculation, 
and those on the side upon which the venom was inserted were the first to 
suffer. 

1 Quoted by Mitchell. 
2 J. H. Salisbury. Influence of the poison of the northern rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) on plants. 
Jour. of Med., 1854, XIII, 337- 
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