POISONOUS PLANTS 1 69 



search out this shrub and identify it in its haunt, 

 for future avoidance, as it is one of the decorative 

 bushes of Autumn whose leaves work sad mis- 

 chief through being gathered to decorate houses 

 and churches, or for pressing. 



Many of the hillside folk call it Bush Ash, and 

 deny the poisonous qualities which they have never 

 personally experienced. One day when I was re- 

 turning from a Lonetown excursion with the chaise 

 full of the glistening leaves of the Smooth Sumac, 

 a " berry woman " with whom I had often had 

 dealings stopped me a very unusual proceeding 

 to exclaim, "You '11 be p'isoned blind with that 

 Shumac, sure as yer alive." 



I explained its innocence to her, reasons, red 

 berries and all, and warned her that a large bundle 

 of branches which she was carrying to decorate the 

 school -house for a harvest -home supper, was chiefly 

 composed of the true Poison Sumac. 



No, I was mistaken. What she had was "just 

 Bush Ash." She 'd always picked it when she was 

 a girl; a peddler told her the shiny kind was poison, 

 and his mother was an herb doctor, and so he knew. 

 Why, anybody could see that it was the poison that 

 made the leaves shine ; it all lay in a varnish on top ! 



She proceeded on her way, but two weeks after- 



