LESS IMPORTANT SPECIES. 117 



Some animals with sound digestive tracts will accustom themselves 

 to feeding on vegetable products containing these compounds, while 

 animals of the same kind having ulcerated digestive organs will often 

 succumb to them. In using such food stuffs regularly one also runs a 

 considerable risk of inducing chronic poisoning, the symptoms of 

 which have not been well investigated. Under this influence the stock 

 will rapidly decline, or fall off in flesh, the reason not being usuall}'^ 

 apparent to the common observer. 



No antidotes were experimented with. On general grounds, how- 

 ever, it would be well to use the permanganate solution if it is proba- 

 ble that some of the seeds still remain in the stomach. The applica- 

 tion of soda will probably do no good. Oils and demulcent drinks 

 should be administered as quickly as possible, but for further treat- 

 ment the service of a veterinarian should be obtained. Cow cockle has 

 a shallow root and consequently may be easil}^ pulled out of the soil, 

 but when it is abundant it should be killed off by summer-fallowing, 

 a practice which is often made use of in Montana. 



SWAMP CAIMAS. 



{Zygadenus elegans Pursh.) 



This species resembles death camas, but is distinguished from it by 

 its taller stature, larger flowers, and wider leaves, which sometimes 

 attain the width of a half inch (PI. XVIII). The flowering of death 

 camas begins in different years from the 1st to the 15th of May; swamp 

 camas blooms about two weeks later. 



The distribution of swamp camas in Montana is less extensive than 

 that of death camas, but the plant is extremely abundant in certain 

 limited areas. It is found in the Judith Basin, near Grafton, Utica, 

 Ubet, and Lewistown. Other localities in the State in which it was 

 found were Bozeman, Spanish Creek, Sixteenmile Creek, Helena, 

 Mill Creek, Deerlodge, Columbia Falls, and on Shields River. Its 

 general range is very wide, extending from New Brunswick to Alaska, 

 and south to Vermont, New York, and in the Rocky Mountain region 

 to New Mexico. The general appearance of both species of this genus 

 varies to a considerable extent, depending upon the amount of mois- 

 ture in the soil where they grow. Swamp camas grows in wet mead- 

 ows and in much moister localities than those in which death camas is 

 ordinarily found. When growing in wet meadows it is usually in full 

 seed at the time when the grass is cut. On one sheep ranch a few 

 tons of hay had been cut in the fall of 1899 and it was intended to 

 feed the hay during the fall and winter. This hay proved on the first 

 feeding to be poisonous to sheep and no more of it was fed out. An 

 examination of the remaining portion of the hay in the stack showed 

 that large quantities of swamp camas were present. No other plant 



