160 POISONOUS PLANTS 



day. In his capacity of stock-breeder, he then 

 vowed that he would learn something about the 

 poisonous plants of his own country. 



Even Time o' Year, who had handled the 

 "Touch Nots" from boyhood, confessed not long 

 since, " Nothin' used ter poison me, and now 

 for some years back Ivy and Sumac both does, 

 and I can't walk on the near side of a brush heap 

 where Swamp Sunflower is drying without sneez- 

 ing and coughing fit to choke;" showing that even 

 he, to the manor born, did not understand the 

 workings of these acrid plant juices, or know that 

 to be once immune does not mean always to be 

 so, for in middle and late life many succumb who 

 were invincible. 



As it happens, nearly all of these plants are dis- 

 tinctive and easy of identification, while the blos- 

 soms and foliage of many place them among the 

 flowers of landscape value. To clearly memorize 

 the names and attributes of such of them as are 

 likely to injure either ourselves or the cattle grazing 

 about our homes, it is best to divide them in two 

 groups: the tribes of Touch Not and Taste Not. 



First, let it be distinctly understood that those 

 plants are excluded from the list from which poi- 

 sonous or narcotic drugs are distilled, but which, in 



