ree ee 
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- PLANTS POISONOUS TO HANDLE 217 
handsome fly-amanita (Fig. 206), so called from its use as a 
fly-poison. It should be noticed that the base of the stalk in- 
stead of being plainly in a cup is bulbous and scaly. This 
fungus, like the death-cup, has a pleasant flavor; and after it 
has been eaten no sign of poisoning is noticed for several 
hours. Prompt medical treatment may then save the pa- 
tient’s life. 
63. Plants poisonous to handle. The number of plants 
which poison the skin by contact is fortunately much smaller 
than the number of those poisonous to eat. Among the latter 
which have been already mentioned the death-cup, the fly- 
amanita, and the snow-on-the-mountain are the only ones 
poisonous to handle. The milky juice of the snow-on-the- 
mountain applied to the skin often causes intense itching 
and inflammation accompanied by blisters. The same is 
true of the juice of the nearly related caper spurge (Fig. 207) 
and of other spurges common in gardens. The colorless 
juice of several species of buttercups or crowfoots, espe- 
cially the tall buttercup (Fig. 208) and the ditch crowfoot 
(Fig. 209), blister the skin. These and related species are . 
sometimes used by European beggars to produce sores as a 
means of exciting compassion. 
In the United States by far the worst and most frequent 
cases of poisoning by contact come from the poison-ivy 
(Fig. 210) and the poison-sumac (Fig. 211) of the East, and 
certain of their relatives which live in other parts of the 
country. Poison-ivy may be distinguished from other com- 
mon vines for which it is apt to be mistaken, by the fact that 
its leaflets are in threes and its fruit white. Poison-sumac 
may be distinguished from the other common sumacs and 
other shrubs which it resembles, by the smoothness of its 
twigs and leaves and the even edge of its leaflets together 
with the slender cylindrical form of the part which bears 
them, the drooping of the flower-clusters and the greenish- 
white color of the hanging fruit. The symptoms of poisoning 
by either plant are inflammation with itching, swelling, and 
eruption. The poisonous principle of both species has re- 
cently been discovered to be a fixed oil, called cardol, which 
is soluble in alcohol. Hence the treatment recommended 
