FLOWERING SHRUBS 



find soil to nourish the plant the Poison Ivy may be found. 

 Of its injurious effects on the human body I can speak from 

 experience, having witnessed its baneful influence in many 

 instances. Gray describes its noxious qualities as " poison- 

 ous to the touch, even the effluvium in sunshine affecting 

 some persons." 



There are various opinions regarding the way in which 

 the virus is communicated, and also in what part of the 

 plant it exists, some persons thinking that actual contact is 

 necessary, others that it is emitted from the leaves when 

 wetted by dews and given out in sunshine; again it is 

 asserted by some to be the pollen of the flowers floating in 

 the air and resting on the skin which is the cause, while 

 others say that the poison is given out in a gaseous vapor 

 at dewfall. All these suggestions may have some founda- 

 tion. I am inclined to think that the poisonous qualities of 

 the plant are given out in the heat of the day, when the 

 sun's rays are most powerful, and float freely in the atmos- 

 phere, as there are instances of persons being affected in 

 daytime when only passing within some little distance of 

 places where the plant abounded, without coming into 

 actual contact with it in any way. 



To some persons the Poison Ivy is perfectly harmless. I, 

 for one, have gathered it for my herbarium in all stages of 

 its growth, without receiving from it the slightest injury, 

 while other members of the family have suffered severely 

 from having been near it or walking among the shrubs 

 where it was growing. It is during the hot summer months 

 that most of the cases of poisoning occur, especially in June 

 and July. 



The first symptoms are redness about the eyelids, ears, and 

 throat, which quickly increase to angry inflamed blotches, 

 rising in blisters, the whole face becoming swollen so as to 



201 



