PLANTS MAKE HORSES CRAZY 



fine young cows were lying dead on a neighbouring farm 

 through having eaten them ! 



A particularly useful order of plants {Leguminosce), the 

 Beans and Peas, contains a few poisonous species. It is said 

 that in every year children are sure to be killed by eating 

 the seeds of the Laburnum, and to this order belong also 

 the Calabar Bean and CraVs Eyes. The last named is only 

 fatal when introduced below the skin in small quantities. 

 The seeds of the Bitter Vetch {Lathams sativus) produce 

 paralysis of the legs in man and also in horses. The Crazy 

 or Loco weed of North America is sometimes eaten by horses 

 in the Western United States. The wretched animals 

 stagger about as if intoxicated, and eventually die. Belong- 

 ing to this same order is the Wild Tamarind, or Jumbai, 

 of Jamaica (Leuccena glauca). It is a weedy-looking acacia, 

 and extremely common in all tropical countries. Dr. D. Morris 

 thus alludes to it : — ^ 



" Mr. Robert Russell, of St. Ann''s, informs me that horses 

 feeding on the leaves of this plant completely lose the hair 

 from their manes and tails. This . . . statement was sup- 

 ported by the testimony of so many people acquainted with 

 the facts that there was no reason to doubt it. Many years 

 afterwards (in December, 1895), I renewed my acquaintance 

 with the plant in the Bahamas. The plant was much more 

 plentiful there than in Jamaica; it was, in fact, distinctly 

 encouraged in the former islands as a fodder plant. The 

 people were fully aware of the singular effect it produced on 

 horses, and added that it also affected mules and donkeys. 

 Its effect on pigs was still more marked. These animals 

 assumed a completely naked condition, and appeared with- 

 out a single hair on their body. Horses badly affected by 

 ^ British Association, Liverpool, 1896, Section K. 

 235 



