580 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



is to be found. Several cases of this kind were reported. At 

 Alpena, Mich., five children were badly poisoned by eating the seeds 

 of the purple-flowered species, which was cultivated in a garden 

 as a curiosity under the fanciful trade name of "Night-blooming 

 Cactus." Several other cases where children have been poisoned 

 by this plant have been reported. Children are also poisoned 

 by sucking the flower or playing with it in the mouth. The fresh 

 green leaves and also the root have occasionally been cooked by mis- 

 take for other wild edible plants. One or two instances are recorded 

 in which cattle have been poisoned by eating the leaves of young 

 plants which were present in grass hay. The symptoms of the poi- 

 soning are headache, vertigo, nausea, extreme thirst, dry, burning 

 skin, and general nervous confusion, with dilated pupils, loss of 

 sight and of voluntary motion, and sometimes mania, convulsions, 

 and death. The jimson weeds should be removed from vacant lots 

 by mowing the plants while in flower or by cultivating the soil. 



Black Nightshade (Solanum, nigrum). Common nightshade; 

 nightshade; deadly nightshade; garden nightshade. The black 

 nightshade is a smooth annual, 1 to 2 feet high, with rough, angu- 

 lar, widely branching stems; ovate leaves, 2 to 4 inches long, with 

 wavy margins; drooping clusters of small white flowers, and black, 

 globose, juicy berries, which ripen from July to October. It is a 

 common, introduced weed in rich shaded grounds and fields east of 

 South Dakota and Arkansas, and in damp places westward to the 

 Pacific Ocean. The amount of poison present in any part of this 

 plant varies with the conditions of growth. The more musky-odored 

 plants are the most poisonous. Nearly related to this plant is the 

 spreading nightshade or "wild potato" (Solanum triflorum Nutt.), 

 a native garden weed of the Great Plains region. It is a smooth, 

 low annual, with widely branching stems, 7 to 9 lobed leaves, nu- 

 merous clusters of small white flowers which are grouped in threes, 

 and large green berries a half inch or more in diameter. These are 

 not attractive to the eye, but have an agreeable odor and taste. 

 The symptoms are about the same in man and animals. They are 

 stupefaction, staggering, cramps, and sometimes convulsions. The 

 pupil of the eye is generally dilated. Death is directly due to a 

 paralysis of the lungs, but fortunately few cases are fatal. 



Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara). Woody nightshade; night- 

 shade vine; staff vine; fever twig; tetonwort. A climbing, woody, 

 introduced perennial 3 to 6 or 8 feet high, with thin leaves, the 

 lowermost of which are ovate or heart-shaped, the upper more or 

 less spear-shaped. The flowers are purple, the fruit red. It ripens 

 from July to October and November. The plant thrives best and is 

 common along brooks and ditches from Massachusetts to Ohio, less 

 common elsewhere in damp ground from Maine to North Carolina 

 and to Wisconsin and Missouri. The berry, though its taste is not 

 remarkably disagreeable, is somewhat poisonous, and it has been 

 shown that an extract of the leaves is moderately so. 



Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale). Sneezewort; autumn 

 eneezwort; autumn sneezeweed; staggerweed (S. C.) ; swamp sun- 



