A RIVAL OF THE FABLED UPAS TREE 99 



bine, which is a convolvulus, E.R.L.), or, as you call it, 

 'Virginian creeper,' has five leaflets in a cluster. Every 

 path which we used frequently and necessarily, such as 

 the path to the boat-house, and to the cove where the 

 bathing-house stood, we kept cleared of the Rhus for a 

 sufficient width, but in the woods eternal vigilance was 

 the price of safety. To uproot and burn is the only 

 way to destroy it, but, of course, that involves danger to 

 the one who does the work, because contact with the 

 spade used, and with the garments which touched the 

 ivy, might communicate the poison. The farmer and 

 the countryfolk about declared that the fumes from the 

 burning plant could and did poison those who breathed 

 them. We used to turn a flock of sheep into the most 

 used parts. They prefer the poison-ivy to grass, and 

 greedily eat down every leaf within reach in hedge or 

 path. But that, of course, was a mere temporary safety, 

 as the plant is most tenacious of life. I personally had 

 a most grievous, experience one summer. I can only 

 suppose that my dress, though very short for wood and 

 hill walking, brushed over the poisonous plant, and then, 

 when I undressed, came into contact with my skin. 

 Both legs became covered with the eruption, eventually 

 developing pustules, and the agony of itching, burning, 

 and smarting was indescribable. The first remedy 

 applied is usually a frequent use of baths of some alkali, 

 generally common soda. With me it was altogether 

 inadequate, and the doctor carefully covered the affected 

 parts with a thick layer of bismuth, and bandaged them, 

 so as to exclude all air. But it took weeks to cure me. 

 A very serious result in many cases is that there is a 

 recurrence of the itching for several years." 



