28 POISONOUS PLANTS OF ALL COUNTRIES 



monoecious; June-September; green. — Fruit a drupe, fleshy, 

 1 -seeded. — Leaves alternate, with deciduous stipules, simple, 

 oblong, unequally cordate, very entire, often lobed, smaller 

 ones hairy. 

 Toxic Principle.— A^TIABJN, 



On the blasted heath 



Fell Upas sits, the hydra-tree of death. 



Daewin: " Loves of the Plants.''' 



URTICA PILULIFERA [British). 49. 



ROMAN NETTLE. 



Urticacece. — Leaves opposite, ovate, deeply serrated, with 

 stinging hairs. — Fertile flowers in globular heads. — Waste 

 ground; 1-2 ft.; annual; June and July; green. 



Toxic Principle. — FORMIC ACID, also contained in U. 

 crenulenta, U. urentissima, U. gigas, U. dioica, U. urens. 



In dock, out nettle : 

 DonH let the blood settle. 



Country Incantation. 



FICUS ROXBURGHn. 

 FICUS DiEMONA. 



FICUS TOXICARIA {Tanjore). 49a. 

 Urticacece. — Young shoots thickly clothed with soft, white 

 hairs. — Leaves opposite; stalked; oblong and oblong-cuneate ; 

 acute; sometimes serrate; above smooth; below downy and 

 reticulated with soft, hairy veins; 2-12 ins.; petioles round, 

 with a green gland on each side of base ; stipules within leaves, 

 deciduous. — Flowers (male) monandrous. — Fruit (hypantho- 

 dium) yellow-green, size of a large nutmeg; obovate; very 

 hairy; umbilicus closed by cordate, imbricate scales; growing 

 (a) usually in pairs, in radical, withering racemes which are 

 frequently of great length, apices penetrating the ground ; or 

 (6) entire raceme and fruit underground, or (c) growing from 

 trunk and branches. 



Toxic Principle. — ^ACRID MILK. 



The fig-tree wild that grows on tombs. — Johnson: " Song of the Hags.'' 



