DICOTYLEDONS AS POISONOUS PLANTS 



57 



stance phytolaccotoxin (C 2 4H 3 oO 8 ). The juice of the berry is a delicate 

 test for acids, when lime water is added to it. 



Corn Cockle. (Agrostemma githago). This is an erect annual herb 

 growing as tall as wheat in the wheat field. It is densely pubescent with 

 whitish, appressed hairs. Its 

 leaves are opposite, linear-lanceo- 

 late and acute (Fig. 21). 



Symptoms. If the seeds (Fig. 

 2ib) are ground with wheat, they 

 impart to baker's flour a bitter 

 taste and poisonous properties. 

 Fatal results have followed the 

 use of bread containing ground 

 corncockle seeds. A few years 

 ago a number of horses died in a 

 stable connected with one of the 

 larger Philadelphia breweries by 

 eating oats that had come from 

 the bottom of the grain bin. No 

 deleterious substance was found 

 in the sample of oats submitted 

 to the writer for examination ex- 

 cept a large number of corncockle 

 seeds and this indirect evidence 

 points to these seeds as respon- 

 sible for the death of the animals 

 and a report was made to the 

 owner of the horses accordingly. 

 It is known that -the symptoms 

 of poisoning in horses is yawning, 

 heavy colic, stamping and evacua- 

 tion of rather soft feces. If 

 larger quantities are eaten there 

 is salivation, frequent yawning 

 and turning of the head with colic, pale mucus, hurried and weak pulse, 

 rise in temperature and accelerated respiration. There are muscular 

 tremors followed by rigidity and the feces are diarrhceic and fetid. The 

 horse lies down. It gets up painfully. These symptoms are succeeded 



PIG. 21. Corncockle (Lychnis githago). 

 Common in grain fields. (Chestnut Division 

 of Botany, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.) (Re- 

 produced in Pammel, L. H.: Some Weeds of 

 Iowa, Bull. 70, Experiment Station, Iowa 

 State College, 1903, p. 326.) 



