96 Plants suspected of being Poisonous [ch. 



of being poisonous, like Pedicularis and Melampyrum, but it is by no 

 means clear how far it may prove harmful to stock. It is beheved by 

 some people to impart a bad taste to the butter made from the milk 

 of cows grazing on infested pastures. Lehmann ate without harm 

 35 grammes (about Ij oz.) of the seeds made into a cake and 

 cooked; and during four days he gave a rabbit 1238 grammes 

 (2-7 lb.) of the fresh plant with half-ripe seeds, without apparent 

 injury (73). 



In some poor pastures it occurs in excessive quantity, and would 

 appear to be only very slightly poisonous, or would have attracted 

 wider attention. It is possibly only poisonous after being eaten for 

 a prolonged period, as in the case of Lolium teniulentum, and Lathyrus 

 sativus. The seeds contain the bitter-sweet glucoside Rhinanthin 

 (C29H52O20), which is suspected of having poisonous properties. 



Cow- Wheat {Melampyrum arvense L.). It seems clear that Cow- 

 Wheat is at least not poisonous unless eaten in very considerable quan- 

 tities — amounts in fact which in practice are most unlikely to be eaten. 

 The seeds may occur in cereal grains, and hence be ground up into meal. 

 As they are said to contain a glucoside analogous to Rhinanthin, have 

 a bitter taste and peculiar odour, and impart a violet coloration to 

 flour, their presence in cornfields is most undesirable. According to 

 Pammel this plant induces sleepiness and colic. 



Ground Ivy {Nepeta Glechoma Benth.) is, according to Schaffner, 

 poisonous to horses. It contains a volatile oil and bitter principle, as 

 also does Catmint {N. Cataria). In a case which came before the Board 

 of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1906 three horses became ill with 

 symptoms of poisoning, and the only weed found in the lucerne they 

 were getting was Ground Ivy, and this was suspected but not proved to 

 be the cause. In a further case, reported in 1909, eleven horses were 

 believed to have been poisoned by this weed, and in one of the dead 

 horses scarcely any food but Ground Ivy was found, and to it the 

 veterinary surgeon in attendance attributed death. During preceding 

 years several horses had died in the locality (Ely), owing, it was believed, 

 to poisoning by the same weed. The losses, however, were not proved 

 to be due to this plant. 



In the Veterinary Journal (October, 1914, p. 515) poisoning of 

 horses by this weed was noted (after Ferenczhazsy in the Recueil de 

 Medecine Veterinaire). The author observed nine cases of intoxication 

 due to the weed, though it is stated that it " has occasioned no trouble 

 in cattle and sheep that consumed it." The symptoms in horses were 



