366 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



Mountains, and the Sierra, and is a prominent and important 

 feature of the botany of the State. One of the first lessons 

 of the new-comer in California, should be to learn to distin- 

 guish and avoid this useless and dangerous plant. The touch 

 of the leaf is poisonous, and causes a very irritating eruption 

 of the skin. It rapidly communicates by the touch from one 

 part of the body to another, causing severe inflammations and 

 swellings. The most delicate parts of the body are most af- 

 fected by the poison. The eyes are sometimes closed up en- 

 tirely by the swelling round them ; and many cases are re- 

 corded of faces so swollen, that they could not be recognized 

 by intimate friends. Some persons are not affected by the 

 touch of the Rhus ; but instances have occurred wherein persons 

 supposing themselves, after long experience, to be free from 

 danger, have at last been poisoned : and when the virus has 

 once taken hold, the system is always very easily affected from 

 that time forward. Even passing to the leeward of the bush 

 on a windy day, or going through the smoke of a fire in 

 which it is burning, will bring the poison to the surface again. 

 The poison oak the leaves often resemble those of the white 

 oak in shape abounds in the grounds adapted to picnics near 

 the large towns, and many persons are affected by it on such 

 occasions. Many remedies are in use, but none are regarded as 

 a certain cure. Among them are steam baths, lotions of ker- 

 osene, manzanita leaves, leaves of the wild sunflower, (Grin- 

 delia) common salt, saleratus, sal peter, bay rum, and alcohol 

 each being used separately poultices of bread and milk, 

 the eating of the buds of the poisonous plant, and homoeo- 

 pathic Khus pills. 



The poison oak thrives best on a moist soil, and in the shade. 

 In a thicket with other bushes it sends up many thin stalks 

 eight or ten feet high, with large luxuriant leaves at the top. 

 In the shade, the leaves are green ; in the open, dry ground, 

 exposed to the sun, and without support from other bushes, 

 the poison oak is a low, poverty-stricken little shrub, with a few 



