TALL LARKSPUR. 67 



a horse browse on the flowering plants in August for fully ten minutes 

 at one time. In such cases the tall larkspur may sometimes be eaten, 

 but as a rule stock do not manifest an}^ special fondness for it. On 

 both slopes of the Big Belt Mountains the tall larkspur grows abun- 

 dantly, and cattle and horses range over these areas during summei 

 and autumn. Although cattle are sometimes killed by eating the plant 

 during early summer on the lower slopes, especially near Townsend, 

 search was made in vain for any evidence of the plant having been 

 eaten in these localities during late summer and autumn. It was 

 noticed that while the grass and other plants growing among the stems 

 of tall larkspur had been eaten the larkspur was left standing. On the 

 other hand, there are cases on record where cows have been killed by 

 eating the dry tops of tall larkspur in September, at which time nearly 

 all the leaves have disappeared and the seeds which, judging from 

 analogy with other species, probably contain a poisonous alkaloid, 

 remain in the ripe capsules. We have heard of no observations show- 

 ing that the plant has ever killed horses nor on the other hand that 

 the leaves have ever been eaten by them or other stock to any extent 

 with impunity before flowering time. A few persons believe, however, 

 that the plant is not dangerous to horses or cattle except when wet or 

 when snow is on the ground. It is easy to understand why more stock 

 should be killed by it when snow covers almost. every other plant, as it 

 often does both in spring and autumn; but why it should prove more 

 fatal when wet is very difiicult to understand. The roots are too 

 woody to be eaten. 



Although many cattle are undoubtedly^ killed by eating the tall lark- 

 spur there are few recorded instances of such poisoning. One reason 

 for this*, however, lies in the fact that cattle, unlike sheep, being left 

 to the care of themselves on wide ranges are, when poisoned, more 

 frequently found dead than alive, and hence the symptoms, which fur- 

 nish the most convincing evidence in tracing out any case of poisoning, 

 remain unrecorded. The plant has been received from Livingston, 

 Bigtimber, Cherry Creek near the Madison River, and Sedan, accom- 

 panied by a statement that it caused the death of cattle, and in the 

 Gallatin Basin the tall larkspur has for many years been recognized as 

 the cause of more or less serious losses of cattle in the spring. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



The following experiments were primarilj^ conducted with the object 

 of determining whether the immature plants are poisonous or not and, 

 if so, of finding an antidote. As, however, no previous records of 

 experiments or observations on the plant were found showing the 

 characteristic symptoms of poisoning by it in stock some notes were 

 made in this line also. 



Experiment 1. — The extract used in this experiment was made by 

 Irvin Cockrell from dried roots collected during the preceding season. 



