no 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



without marginal teeth. Its very prominent leaf scars are 

 sufficient to distinguish it from, other shrubs in winter. 

 It grows in swamps and damp woods from Florida to 

 Canada and westward to Louisiana. 



It is poisonous to the skin in the same way as poison 

 ivy and requires the same precautions in handling and 

 the same treatment. 



Poison Oak, RJius diversiloba. — (Poison ivy, yeara, Cali- 

 fornia poison sumac.) This is a western plant of the 

 same class with the two preceding and should be treated 

 in the same way.^ 



Poison Hemlock, Co7iiiini macidattim. — (Hemlock, wild 

 hemlock, spotted parsley, stinkweed, poison root, poison 



snakeweed, cashes, wode-whistle.) 

 Poison hemlock is a hollow-stemmed 

 biennial, two to seven feet tall, stems 

 smooth and purple spotted, widely 

 distributed about roadsides and waste 

 lands. The flowers are white, appear- 

 ing in July and August. The leaves 

 have an extremely nauseating taste 

 and when bruised emit a characteristic 

 '' mousy" odor. Poisoning occurs by 

 eating the seeds or roots or even by 

 blowing whistles made from the hol- 

 low stems. It probably furnished 

 ^ ^ „ „ the poison administered to Socrates. 



Fig. 46. Poison Hemlock ^ 



1 The nomenclature for all these poisonous plants is here given according 

 to Bulletin No. 86, and so much confusion exists that it would be a great 

 desideratum if the names could be fixed and made reasonably uniform for 

 the whole country by means of nature-study lessons in the public schools. 



