574 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



woods, on bushy hillsides and ravines, and sometimes along fences, 

 in Arizona and to the west of the Sierra Nevada and Casade ranges 

 in California, Oregon, and Washington. It does not, however, fre- 

 quent the higher mountains. 



This species produces about the same effect on the human skin 

 as the poison ivy, and cases of poisoning are to be treated in the 

 same way. 



Poison Sumac (Rhus vernix). Swamp sumac; dogwood 

 (Mass.); poison dogwood; poison elder (Ala.); poison ash (Vt.) ; 

 poison tree; poison wood; poison swamp sumac; thundenvood (Ga., 

 Va.) A tree-like shrub 6 to 30 feet high, with long pinnate leaves 

 having from 7 to 13 leaflets, without marginal teeth. The wood has 

 a faint sulphurous odor, which, together with the leaf scars, which 

 are very prominent, enables one to distinguish the plant from other 

 shrubbery in winter. It grows in swamps and in damp woods from 

 Florida to Canada and westward to Louisiana. 



This also affects the skin in the same way as poison ivy, and 

 cases require the same remedy. 



Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia). Small buckeye; buckeye; 

 horse-chestnut. 



A shrub 8 to 12 feet high, with opposite long-stemmed leaves, 

 and numerous clusters of bright red flowers, which appear in March. 

 The fruit is smooth, even when young; the seeds are mahogany- 

 colored and are elegantly polished. The red buckeye is native in 

 fertile valleys from Virginia to Florida, throughout the Gulf States 

 to Louisiana, and in Arkansas. It is sparingly represented in 

 Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. It is cultivated 

 to some extent in Pennsylvania. The records of its poisonous action 

 are mostly confined to its use as a means of procuring fish, but 

 cattle are sometimes killed by eating the fruit. It was formerly, 

 and perhaps is still, the practice to stir the bruised seeds or twigs 

 into small ponds and gather the stupefied fish by hand as they rise 

 to the surface. When thoroughly cooked these fish are quite whole- 

 some. 



The common horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is poi- 

 sonous. In England, however, it is fed to cattle after the removal 

 of the poison by thorough washing with alkali. Cases of poison- 

 ing by this and the next species have arisen from overdoses in medi- 

 cine. The Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra) is regarded as inter- 

 mediate between this and the above species in its poisonous qualities. 

 The fruit of the California buckeye (Aesculus calif ornica) is some- 

 times made into soup and bread by the Round Valley Indians, after 

 removing the poison by roasting and leaching. 



Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata). American water hem- 

 lock; wild hemlock; spotted hemlock; spotted parsley; snakeweed; 

 beaver poison; musquash root; muskrat weed; cowbane; spotted 

 cowbane; children's bane; death of man. A smooth, erect, per- 

 ennial, 3 to 8 feet high, with a rigid, hollow stem, numerous 

 branches, finely dissected leaves, white flowers, and a cluster of 

 spindle-shaped roots, which vary in length from 1^ to 3 inches, 



