PLANTS POISONOUS TO EAT 199 
The danger attending the use of the herbage of the pokeweed 
as a pot-herb has already been noticed. Not infrequently 
deaths are caused by eating the leaves of poisonous wild 
plants picked by mistake for the marsh-marigold (F igs. 184, 
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Fig. 186.—Indian Poke (Veratrum viride, Lily Family, Liliacew). Upper 
and middle section of plant, 3. (Chesnut.)—Perennial herb about 
1-2 m. tall; leaves somewhat hairy; flowers yellowish green; fruit 
dry. Native home, North America. 
) 
185), or other spring ‘“greens.”’ The plant which has proved 
most dangerous in this way is the Indian poke (Fig. 186). 
Another common herb which has sometimes been eaten for 
“greens” with fatal results is the jimson-weed (Fig. 187). 
