196 MEDICINAL AND POISONOUS PLANTS 
The common pokeweed (Fig. 181) the young shoots of 
which are often cooked and eaten like asparagus, is very 
dangerous as regards its root and fruit, and even the herbage 
may prove poisonous unless thoroughly boiled and the water 
changed. Death has resulted from eating the root by mis- 
take for horseradish, parsnip, and artichoke. Children have 
died from eating the fruit, the seeds of which are especially 
Fig. 181, Il.—Pokeweed. A, flower. B, same, cut vertically. C, floral 
diagram. D, fruit. /, seed, entire. /’, same, cut vertically. G, root. 
(Baillon.) 
poisonous. Household remedies prepared from the plant 
“are widely used, but the cases of poisoning from overdoses 
of it ignorantly taken show it to be an especially dangerous 
medicine. The monkshood (Fig. 178) common in gardens 
is another plant the roots of which have been mistaken for 
horseradish, with fatal results. 
The bark of various trees and their roots is often chewed 
by young people, and often serious and sometimes fatal con- 
sequences have resulted from mistaking poisonous for harm- 
less kinds. The locust (Fig. 182) and elder (Fig. i have 
proved especially dangerous in this respect. 
