1 64 POISONOUS PLANTS 



by many winter birds, and the seeds so scattered 

 establish the vine more firmly each year, for the 

 only method taken by townships to eradicate the 

 plague is to cut it annually with a stub scythe 

 where it grows on the highways, a proceeding 

 that merely increases its strength of root. 



When Autumn comes, Poison Ivy chooses its 

 colors of mellow yellows, salmon - pink, bronze 

 and crimson with discretion, individual vines often 

 keeping distinct tones, some always turning plain 

 yellow, and others varying from pink to crim- 

 son without a single yellow tinge. Alack, how 

 we shall miss this vine in the landscape when 

 twentieth century magic perhaps shall have taught 

 us to outwit it! 



So much for beauty. Now for the bad side 

 of its character. Poison Ivy is full of an acrid 

 oil, which does not easily evaporate upon the drying 

 of the plant that generates it, and which, like 

 other oils, does not dissolve in water. Conse- 

 quently when it is liberated from the leaf tissue, 

 and the merest touch will do it this oil at once 

 permeates the skin of its victim and spreads its 

 irritation on the surface, and not through the blood 

 as was once supposed. To the susceptible a tin- 

 gling of the skin may be the first warning that 



