92 



DESCRIPTION: It is an annual or biennial plant from one to two and 

 a half feet high. The stem is coarse, hairy, and sticky. The leaves on 

 the stem are without stalks, oblong in general outline, with three to five 

 pointed lobes or sometimes entire with wavy margins. The flowers, with 

 very short stalks, are pale greenish-yellow, strongly and beautifully veined 

 with deep purple. The seed vessel is very characteristic. It is like a deep 

 narrow basket with a cover which opens when the seeds are ready for 

 dispersal. The plant is in bloom from June to September. 



DISTRIBUTION: Black henbane has become naturalized in Canada, 

 and is found about gardens and in waste places from Nova Scotia to 

 Ontario. 



POISONOUS PROPERTIES: It is a well-known poisonous plant, but 

 poisoning rarely occurs among stock on account of its strong foetid odour 

 and rough foliage. Chesnut records the poisoning of chickens which ate 

 the ripe seeds. Cornevin reports the poisoning of cows by eating the 

 plant when mixed with other herbage. H. C. Long says: ' There are 

 numbers of cases of children having been poisoned by eating the seeds. 

 The root has also caused accidents by being taken for other herbs, and the 

 young shoots and leaves have been used in error as a vegetable. A case 

 was reported in the press in 1910 in which twenty-five men and women 

 visitors at a Davos pension suffered from the effects of eating the root of 

 henbane given in error for horse-radish, or mixed with it. All suffered 

 from strange hallucinations, but with prompt and careful treatment all 

 had recovered in twelve hours." The poisonous principle is not destroyed 

 by boiling or drying. Poisoning is due to one or more alkaloids, of which 

 hyoscyamine is the chief. 



SYMPTOMS : The symptoms of poisoning in animals as given by Welsby 

 are nervo-muscular exaltation, eyelids and irides much dilated, eyes 

 amaurotic and very bright, pulse full, temperature normal, respiration 

 difficult and hurried, profuse salivation, muscles of neck and extremities 

 in a state of tetanic rigidity, considerable abdominal distension, stercora- 

 ceous and renal emunctories entirely suspended, death. 



REMEDY AND MEANS OF CONTROL: In the case of poisoning, profes- 

 sional advice should be obtained. The plants should not be allowed to 

 mature their seed, but should be grubbed out wherever seen. 



THORN APPLE (Datura Stramonium L.) NIGHTSHADE OR 

 POTATO FAMILY. 



PLATE XXXVII. 



COMMON NAMES: Among the variety of names given to this spe.eies 

 of Datura, the best known are Jamestown or Jimson weed, stramonium, 

 devil's apple, mad apple, stinkwort. The Indians speak of it as the "White 

 man's plant." 



