34 MINNESOTA BOTANICAL STUDIES. 



his field notes, he found that each season the poison manifested itself the 

 day after he had collected either Cypripedium spectahile or C. pubescens, 

 and feels quite convinced that in his case the unpleasant effects were due 

 to these heretofore unsuspected plants. Prof. B. asks for experiment to 

 determine if his view is correct. Have any of the readers of the Bulletin 

 any observations bearing upoo the matter?— G. T." 



In the succeeding number of the same journal is the following 

 note to the contrary.^ 



" None of our Cypripediums are poisonous plants, applied either extern- 

 ally or internally. They are much employed by eclectic physicians of 

 this country, and though tons of these plants are annually brought to 

 this market to be manufactured into extract, tincture, or 'Cypripedin,' 

 I have yet to be informed of the first case of poisoning, the result of 

 handling the fresh plant or otherwise. 



I am very susceptible to the effects of Rhus, even from contact of the 

 stems in winter or when quite dry. Others are liable to be poisoned from 

 the emanations of the plant at long distances without coming into con- 

 tact with it. Some others still have a periodical return of the symptoms 

 of such poisoning recurring for a number of years thereafter. — B. E. 

 Kunze, M. D. 



[We have, ourselves, known cases of the periodical return of the Rhus 

 irritation in persons who had handled the plant when brought into the 

 city, but who avoided doing so a second time, and were not likely to go 

 where it grew. — Eds.]" 



In the editorial columns of the Botanical Gazette ^ is found 

 the following comment upon the matter: 



"The most unexpected and harmless plants may be brought into this 

 catagory (of poisonous plants). An instance within the writer's know- 

 ledge was that of a clear-minded lady of a botany class, who found the 

 large white lady's slipper (Cypripedium spectahile), a plant to be avoided; 

 and the absurdity of the notion, in the opinion of the other members of 

 the class, did not in the least change her assertion of its poisonous quali- 

 ties. * * * The subject has considerable of the indefiniteness and 

 evasiveness of the ghost, haunted house, and mesmeric questions now 

 being investigated by the society for psychical research, etc. * * * 

 Even a knowledge of the extent of the subject would be of value." 



Contemporaneously with this notice there appeared the 

 manuals, '' Des Plantes Vem'neuses'' — containing descrip- 

 tions of nearly two hundred and fifty, and ' ' Dermatitis 

 Venenata " — of more than a hundred plants, poisonous in vari- 

 ous ways. In the latter work the supposition of Prof. Babcock 

 concerning the poisonous qualities of Cypripedium pubescens is 

 credited in the following paragraph. ^ 



* * * and was greatly surprised to be informed by Prof. J. Nevins 

 Hyde, of Chicago, that his friend, the late Prof. H. H. Babcock, * * * 

 found the C pubescens, which grows from Canada to Georgia, nearly as 



4. vol. 6, p. 22. 1875. 



5. vol. 12, p. 275. 1887. 



6. 1. c, p. 113. 1887. 



