MONOCOTYLEDONS AS POISONOUS PLANTS 51 



Stagger -grass (Chrosperma (Amianthium) musc&toxicum) . This is 

 an erect smooth herb with a tunicated bulb and numerous long blunt 

 basal leaves. The white flowers' are arranged in a dense terminal raceme. 

 The fruit is a capsule filled with reddish-brown, ovoid seeds. It is found in 

 dry, sandy woods from Long Island to eastern Pennsylvania and south 

 to Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas, flowering from May to July. In 

 March 1911, reports were received by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture from Wilmington, North Carolina of the poisoning of cattle 

 by this plant. Feeding experiments conducted by the Marshes and Claw- 

 son confirmed the general opinion of the poisonous properties of the fly- 

 poison plant. 



White Hellebore (Veratrum mride). This is a common perennial herb 

 in the damp alluvial soil along streams in North America, ascending to 

 5000 feet in the White Mountains and other eastern ranges. There is a 

 Calif ornian species, V. calif ornicum. Its stem is stout, tall, very leafy 

 with broad light green parallel-veined leaves. The flowers are numerous 

 greenish-yellow in a branching panicle. It arises from an erect, under- 

 ground rootstock. Cases of poisoning are known in man, various animals 

 and birds. 



Symptoms. Animals do not relish the plant, as it is acrid and burning 

 in the fresh condition, but young animals sometimes eat it with fatal re- 

 sults. The seeds have been eaten by chickens with a fatal termination. 

 The most marked symptoms of white hellebore poisoning are burning in 

 the throat and oesophagus, salivation, defective vision, itching, vomiting, 

 diarrhoea, severe headache and death by paralysis of the heart. The 

 number of poisonous substances found in this plant is quite large. Vera- 

 trih C32HigNOn has an alkaline reaction and a burning taste, producing 

 violent sneezing and dilatation of the pupil. It has been recently separated 

 into several bases: the very poisonous cevadin C32H 49 N09, vetratri- 

 din CsyH^sNOn and sabadillin C 34 H53NO 8 besides sabadin C 2 9H 5 ,iNO8, 

 sabadinin C27H45N08, jervin C26H37NOs, rubijervin C26H 43 NO2, pseudo- 

 jervin C29H 43 \NX)7, protoveratrin Cs2H5iNOn, protoveratridin C2eH 4 5 

 NO 8 and the bitter glucoside veratramarin. Jervin is a powerful depres- 

 sant of the heart muscles and vasomotor centers. It depresses respira- 

 tion and death occurs from asphyxiation. 



Treatment. Treatment should consist of the use of cardiac and respira- 

 tory stimulants, such as amyl nitrate (by inhalation), alcohol, strychnin, 

 and atropin. Tannic acid can be used as a chemical antidote ; opium to sub- 

 due pain and demulcents to relieve local irritation of the digestive tract. 



