PLANTS POISONOUS TO STOCK. 235 



BERBERIDACE.^ (BARBERRY FAMILY). 



Podophyllum peltatum. — The leaves of the common mandrake, or 

 May apple, of the eastern half of the United States, are sparmgly eaten 

 by some cattle. Cases of poisonmg are very rare, but the experience 

 of one correspondent shows that the milk from a cow that had been 

 feeding on the plant off and on for about three weeks was so extremely 

 laxative as to be positively poisonous. The accident occurred to a baby, 

 fed exclusively on cow's milk. The physiological effect of the milk was 

 precisely like that of mandrake. It was shown that the cow ate the plant, 

 which was abundant in one pasture, and when the animal was removed 

 to a pasture free from the plant the child's illness stopped at once. 



BUTNERIACE^ (STRAWBERRY- SHRUB FAMILY). 



Butneria fertilis. — The large oily seeds of the calycanthus, or sweet- 

 scented shrub, contain a poisonous alkaloid, and are strongly reputed to 

 be poisonous to cattle in Tennessee. 



PAPAVERACEiE (POPPY FAMILY). 



Argemone mexicana. — The Mexican poppy is reputed to be poisonous 

 to stock both in the United States and in New South Wales. The seeds 

 are narcotic, like opium. 



* Chelidonium majus. — The yellow milky sap of the celandine, an 

 introduced weed common in the eastern United States, contains both an 

 acrid and a narcotic poison. Both are powerfully active, but cases of 

 poisoning are rare, as stock refuse to touch the plant. Eeeks, of Spalding, 

 however, describes (J. Comp. Path, and Tlicrap., Dec. 1903, p. 367) an 

 outbreak of poisoning by common celandine in which twenty-one valu- 

 able cows were affected and three died. The symptoms comprised exces- 

 sive salivation and thirst, convulsions, unconsciousness and epileptiform 

 movements. 



* Papaver somniferum, opium poppy, or garden poppy : P. rhoeas, 

 field poppy, red poppy, or corn poppy. — These plants are sometimes 

 self-sown from gardens. Both contain acrid and narcotic poisons, and 

 European literature records the death of various animals from eating 

 their leaves and seed pods. 



POISONING BY POPPIES. 



The consumption of poppies causes arrest of peristalsis, secretion of 

 foamy saliva, colic, depression, coma, and in severe cases death by 

 stoppage of respiration. 



