OUR POISONOUS PLANTS 



THE number of poisonous species in the British flora 

 is far greater than is generally supposed. Fortunately 

 a few only possess qualities of such a virulent nature 

 as hemlock and the deadly nightshade, but a large 

 number are highly injurious to man. Hardly a 

 summer passes without fatal cases of poisoning by 

 British plants being recorded in the newspapers. In 

 1899 a child died in Gloucestershire from the effect 

 of eating privet-berries ; and in the same year an 

 inquest was held at Birmingham on the bodies of two 

 children who had been poisoned by the fruit of cuckoo- 

 pint. And the number of cases in which the sufferers 

 recover, and which consequently never find their way 

 into print, must be considerable. 



To the eye of an ordinary observer there is nothing 

 to distinguish a poisonous berry from a harmless one ; 

 and that a large number of our native fruits are not 

 only harmless but wholesome is well known to all 

 dwellers in the country. We need only mention the 

 wild strawberry, the blackberry, the dewberry, and 

 the black currant, formerly known as squinancy-berry 

 from its use in cases of quinsy and sore throat. 

 Elder-berries, too, and the fruit of the blackthorn are 

 largely gathered in some districts for the purpose of 

 making wine and sloe-gin. Other wild fruits, again, 

 if they are not palatable, are at any rate perfectly 



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