Medical Properties of Flowers 



stem, opposite leaves, and irregular flowers ? Or 

 that dangerous qualities cannot exist in such a 

 formation, but require something very different, 

 such as is found in Ranunculaceae ? Or that true 

 senna really depends upon a slight irregularity in 

 the leaf? Such questions may be multiplied ad 

 infinitum, and to each the same answer must be 

 given that we cannot explain the connection but 

 that it certainly exists ; the facts are there, and 

 we should not be much wiser if we could explain 

 them, and we cannot. 



But with respect to poisonous plants it may 

 be well to note that a plant may be very dan- 

 gerous in one state and quite harmless in another. 

 Many of the poisons are very volatile, and dis- 

 appear when the plant is dried, and in many 

 cases when it is cultivated or cooked. In a 

 hayrick many very poisonous plants can be found, 

 all quite harmless in the dry state ; and I suppose 

 this is the explanation of the harmlessness of 

 the large quantity of colchicum in the Alpine 

 meadows. The colchicum is closely allied to the 

 very poisonous veratrum, and when eaten fresh 

 by grazing cattle it is very injurious to them ; 

 but when dry the poison may be destroyed. And 

 not only can poisonous plants be thus made 

 harmless, but in many cases they are fatal to man 

 but not to beast, and fatal to some beasts and 

 not to others. Pheasants will eat the acrid and 

 poisonous roots of the buttercup, so that the 

 author of The Pheasant, in the " Fur and Feather " 

 i 129 



