PLANTS POISONOUS TO HANDLE 217 



handsome fly-amanita (Fig. 206), so called from its use as a 

 fly-poison. It should be noticed that the base of the stalk in- 

 stead of being plainly in a cup is bulbous and scaly. This 

 fungus, like the death-cup, has a pleasant flavor; and after it 

 has been eaten no sign of poisoning is noticed for several 

 hours. Prompt medical treatment may then save the pa- 

 tient's life. 



63. Plants poisonous to handle. The number of plants 

 which poison the skin by contact is fortunately much smaller 

 than the number of those poisonous to eat. Among the latter 

 which have been already mentioned the death-cup, the fly- 

 amanita, and the snow-on-the-mountain are the only ones 

 poisonous to handle. The milky juice of the snow-on-the- 

 mountain applied to the skin often causes intense itching 

 and inflammation accompanied by blisters. The same is 

 true of the juice of the nearly related caper spurge (Fig. 207) 

 and of other spurges common in gardens. The colorless 

 juice of several species of buttercups or crowfoots, espe- 

 cially the tall buttercup (Fig. 208) and the ditch crowfoot 

 (Fig. 209), blister the skin. These and related species are 

 sometimes used by European beggars to produce sores as a 

 means of exciting compassion. 



In the United States by far the worst and most frequent 

 cases of poisoning by contact come from the poison-ivy 

 (Fig. 210) and the poison-sumac (Fig. 211) of the East, and 

 certain of their relatives which live in other parts of the 

 country. Poison-ivy may be distinguished from other com- 

 mon vines for which it is apt to be mistaken, by the fact that 

 its leaflets are in threes and its fruit white. Poison-sumac 

 may be distinguished from the other common sumacs and 

 other shrubs which it resembles, by the smoothness of its 

 twigs and leaves and the even edge of its leaflets together 

 with the slender cylindrical form of the part which bears 

 them, the drooping of the flower-clusters and the greenish- 

 white color of the hanging fruit. The symptoms of poisoning 

 by either plant are inflammation with itching, swelling, and 

 eruption. The poisonous principle of both species has re- 

 cently been discovered to be a fixed oil, called cardol, which 

 is soluble in alcohol. Hence the treatment recommended 



