126 STOCK-POISONING PLANTS OF MONTANA. 



a plant native to Washington. Satisfactory evidence against this plant 

 has been given by Prof. O. V. Piper and Mr. G. R. Vasey of the State 

 of Washington. So far as known, however, this species does not 

 occur in Montana. Several localities were examined where poisoning- 

 of sheep had occurred in the early spring, but in all of them other 

 plants of known poisonous character, especially death camas, were- 

 found in abundance. Some of the species of Lomatium which grow 

 in other States are known to be edible. It must, therefore, remaini 

 somewhat doubtful if any of the species which grow upon the ranges, 

 in Montana were concerned in the cases of sheep poisoning where they 

 were suspected, and it appears probable, moreover, that one species,. 

 Lomatium. montanum Coult. &Rose (PL XXI), could easily be improved 

 by careful selection and cultivation sufficiently to serve as a staple 

 vegetable. 



On June 16 \\ c. c. of a 50-per-cent alcoholic extract of the leaves 

 and stems of Lomatiwm jplatycarpmn (Torr.) Coult. & Rose (PI. XXII), 

 representing 1.3 grams of the fresh leaves of nonflowering plants col- 

 lected May 28, was injected hyperdermically into a 59-ounce rabbit 

 without causing anj^ apparent ill effect. Dr. S. B. Nelson has recorded^ 

 an experiment made by himself at Pullman, Washington, on a sheep, 

 in which the animal ate 4 pounds of Lomatimn grayil Coult. & Rose, 

 a vile-smelling plant, without causing any noticeable ill effect. This 

 species does not occur in Montana. 



Miisineon hookeri (Torr. & Gray) Nutt. (PI. XXIII) is a plant of 

 the same family and has been suspected by stockmen of being poison- 

 ous. On May 22 specimens of this plant growing on steep rocky hill- 

 side pastures east of Bozeman Creek were observed, the leaves of 

 which had been closely cropped. The flowering stem, on the contrary, 

 had in all of the several instances noted been untouched. This cir- 

 cumstance was at once explained by comparison of the taste of each. 

 The leaves had a rather agreeable taste, like that of parsley, while the 

 flower stem was disagreeably bitter. The parsley-like taste of the 

 leaves, considered together with their parsley-like appearance, sug- 

 gests that the plant might easily be mistaken for parsley. The finger- 

 like subdivisions of the leaves of the latter and their curly edges suffice 

 at once to distinguish them from the former, and, besides, parsley 

 seldom, if ever, escapes from cultivation in Montana. 



The plains Cymopterus {Cymopterus acauUs (Pursh) Rydberg) (PI. 

 XXIV) also belongs to the carrot family. According to observations 

 made near Custer in 1890 by Dr. J. W . Blankinship, the Crow Indians 

 hold that its semifleshy root is poisonous. No cases of stock poisoning 

 from it have been reported. It has been suspected by some stockmen 

 in Montana, being included by them in the general term "wild 

 parsnip." 



'U. S. Dept. Agr., B. A. I. Bui. 22, p. 14. 1898. 



