264 



PRIxNCIPAL STOCK-POISONING PLANTS 



culture have failed to develop an effective antidote against 

 death camas poisoning. 



The best means of combating death camas poisoning is pre- 

 vention. All stockmen should become acquainted with the 

 plant and take every precaution to keep their sheep away from 

 it, especially in early spring before an abundance of nutritious 

 feed is available. 



WATER HEMLOCK (Cicuta) 



Other common names for Cicuta are cowbane, beaver poison, 



musquash root, musk- 

 rat weed, parsnip, 

 snakeweed, snake- 

 root, and spotted 

 parsley. The water 

 hemlocks are peren- 

 nial umbellifers grow- 

 ing from a rootstock, 

 with pinnate leaves 

 and toothed leaflets. 

 There is often an in- 

 volucre present, but 

 never an involucel. 

 The flowers are 

 white ; the fruit ovoid 

 to orbicular, smooth, 

 unwinged but with prominent, flattish ribs, the lateral ones 

 largest; the oil tubes conspicuous and solitary. The seeds 

 are nearly cylindrical. A striking pecuharity of the roots 

 of most species is their characteristic musky odor and hori- 

 zontal chambered partitions. The species pictured in Figure 

 90 (colored plate) — Cicuta occidentalis — is a typical western 

 plant, which closely resembles other species of Cicuta found on 

 pasture lands. 



Distribution and Habitat. — Water hemlock grows in nearly 

 every country of the North Temperate Zone, and in western 

 North America it usually occurs between elevations of about 



ureau of Animal Industry.) 



Fig. 89. — ONE OF THE CHARACTERISTIC SYMP- 

 TOMS OF SHEEP POISONING BY DEATH 

 CAMAS IS WEAKNESS IN THE FORE LEGS. 



