52 STOCK-POISONING PLANTS OF MONTANA. 



facts, combined with the fact that all parts of the plant are poisonous, 

 make it apparent that in death camas the stockman has a dangerous 

 enem3^ 



The preferred habitat or location in which the death camas usually 

 grows is the familiar shallow ravine, or "coulee, "which occurs in large 

 numbers on the sides of foothills and mountains and upon the plains. 

 So far as our observations go, the death camas does not grow in the 

 driest situations of the level plain. It often grows abundantly, how- 

 ever, on high bench lands, in the shallow depressions found in such 

 locations. After a little experience in the study of the habitat of this 

 plant , one can detect at long distances the particular places in which 

 it is likely to be found. 



In Montana the death camas grows at altitudes varying from 1,900 

 to 8,000 feet, or, in other words, at all altitudes at which sheep are 

 grazed in the State. Ordinarily the death camas does not grow along 

 banks of streams, or in swampy places. It may be said to prefer local- 

 ities m which a moderate amount of moisture is found as the result of 

 slow seepage from the surrounding country. It is even more abundant 

 on pasture lands in Montana than is the purple larkspur {Delphinium 

 hicolor). On many ranges one could not walk ten feet in a straight 

 line anywhere without tramping upon at least a half dozen of these 

 plants. 



As already indicated, death camas, although limited in its distribu- 

 tion to particular localities on the range, nevertheless occurs in great 

 abundance in these localities. It would, therefore, be an easy matter 

 for sheep, in a short time, to find and eat a sufficient number of death 

 camas plants to produce fatal results. In collecting material for feed- 

 ing experiments, we dug up 250 in the course of a half hour, and it is 

 quite possible that a sheep might eat the plant even more rapidly in 

 localities where it was especially abundant. 



HISTORY AS A POISONOUS PLANT. 



The earlier explorers of the Western, and especially of the North- 

 western, United States frequently mention the poisonous character of 

 the bulbs of one or the other of the various species of Zj^gadenus, and 

 refer to them as poison camas ov poison sego, in order to distinguish 

 them from bulbs of two other groups of plants, Quamasia and Calo- 

 chortus, which were commonly known as camas and wild sego, and were 

 much used for food both by the Indians and by travelers.^ Accounts 

 of the poisoning of stock from eating the roots and leaves of various 

 species have but recentl}^ been sent in to this Department. These were 

 from northern California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, 



1 The Ogallala vSioux Indians of South Dakota call the plant peji wakan, which, 

 t)eing interpreted, means "mystery grass." The real significance of the name is not 

 known. 



