170 POISONOUS PLANTS 



ward I learned from Time o' Year that the poor 

 woman had nearly died of Sumac poisoning. All 

 of which proved that since the days when she 

 had touched it freely, she had passed into middle 

 life, that indefinite toll-gate on the road which 

 had robbed her of the immunity of earlier days. 



In addition to these three Sumacs there are 

 two plants, "garden escapes," which contain both 

 acrid, milky juice and berries that are highly poi- 

 sonous. These are the Caper Spurge and its 

 brother, which is sold in catalogues under the 

 name of "Snow on the Mountain;" both are re- 

 lated to the Cypress Spurge of old gardens, and 

 resemble it in the shape of the flowers. The 

 Caper Spurge has small, greenish yellow flowers 

 followed by showy, caperlike, three -seeded fruit. 

 Snow on the Mountain is an annual weed of the 

 Plains. Under cultivation it grows two or three 

 feet in height, its lower leaves being green, oval, 

 and pointed, while the upper, clustering around 

 the flowers, are distinctly edged with white. Its 

 milky juice is so intensely acrid and blisters the 

 skin so readily that Texan stock -raisers have been 

 known to use it for branding cattle instead of 

 the customary hot irons. This plant should be 

 carefully excluded from gardens, and dropped from 



