PLANTS POISONOUS TO STOCK. 



245 



avoid them, but cattle have been poisoned by drinking water into which 

 the plants have been throwai. The juice of E. mavcjinata and E. hkolour 

 is used to some extent in Texas to brand cattle, it being held to be 

 superior to a red-hot iron for that purpose, because screw worms will not 

 infect the fresh scar and the spot heals more readily. 



* Jatropha stimulosa. — The seeds of the spurge nettle of the Southern 

 States are extremely poisonous. Stock avoid the plant on account of its 

 stinging hairs. 



* Ricinus communis. — The castor oil plant is quite commonly 



Fig. 98. — Castor oil plant {Ricinm 

 comtntmis). 



Fig. 99. — Eed chestnut {^■Escnliis pavia). 

 a, Flowering branch ; h, seed— both 

 two-ninths natural size. 



cultivated in the warmer portions of the United States, and grows 

 wild in the South. The seeds have been accidentally eaten by 

 horses with fatal effect, and they have been strewn on pasture lands 

 in the North-West for the purpose of killing sheep that w^ere tres- 

 passing thereon. A Frenchman has discovered a method of making 

 cattle immune to the effects of the toxalbumin contained in the 

 seeds, so that they may be fed to stock without causing any ap- 

 parent ill effect. A note on poisoning by castor oil cake will be 

 found hereafter. 



