252 



POISONING. 



are well known to be most powerfully poisonous, and stock are occa- | 

 sionally killed by eating them. ] 



ASCLEPIADACE^ (MILKWEED FAMILY). 



*Asclepias eriocarpa. — This is the plant with broad mullein-like 

 leaves which is known as milkweed in California. Several authentic 



accounts of the poisoning of 

 sheep have been secured 

 against the plant in Men- 

 docino County. It is espe- 

 cially feared on very warm 

 days by sheep men when 

 they are compelled to drive 

 their flocks through dry, 

 barren valleys. It sometimes 

 grows on cultivated land, and 

 . is cut with hay. 



* Asclepias syriaca. — This 

 is the common milkweed, or 

 silkweed, of the north-eastern 



. quarter of the United States. 

 Experiments show that the 

 milky juice so abundant in 

 all parts of the plant is very 

 acrid and poisonous. It is 

 listed among the poisonous 

 plants of Europe. 



SOLAN ACE^ (potato FAMILY). 



* Datura stramonium: 

 D. tatula. — These two species 



Fig. 109. — Jiinson weed (Datura stramonium). very closely resemble each 

 a, Flowering spray ; h, fruiting capsule— both other, and are most COm- 

 one-third natural size. ^^^^^^ known in the United 



states by the name of jimson 

 weed. They are European plants which have become weeds in waste 

 grounds and about dwellings throughout the greater portion of the 

 country. One or two instances are recorded in which cattle have been 

 poisoned by eating hay containing the young leaves. 



* Hyoscyamus niger. — The black henbane is an ill-smelling plant, a 

 native of Europe, now naturalised in Michigan, and from New York north- 

 ward. One or two cases are recorded in European literature in which stock 



