268 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 384. 



conditions none of the hardy Nymphagas suffered in the least, 

 and have since grown as strongly as usual. There were in 

 the tank N. alba candidissinia, N. rosacea, N. alba rosea, N. 

 sulphurea, N. pygmaea and a few seedlings. If some one will 

 relate the conditions under which he has lost his plants, per- 

 haps we may progress toward the discovery of the line of 

 safety. My experience in growing the hardy Nymphagas leads 

 me to let them alone after they are once established and do- 

 ing well, and not to replant them each season, as I thought 

 necessary when first growing them. My plants are mostly in 

 soap-boxes and are rather crowded in the tanks, quite in the 

 approved amateur fashion. It is not pleasant to work in cold 

 water early in the year, and last year none of the plants which 

 were ni good health were disturbed, and this year they still 

 remain in the same earth and boxes. So far they have done 

 finely, and I have never seen better or larger flowers of N. 

 albida, N. allja candidissima, N. carnea and N. chromatella. 

 The foliage has been vigorous and satisfactory. The roots 

 were originally planted in rather stiff loam, with a large pro- 

 portion of stalile-manure, and there has been a gradual addi- 

 tion of decaying leaves and vegetation, which has made a layer 

 of a few inches in the tank and probably proves valuable nu- 

 trition for the wandering roots. If one has the room. Water- 

 lilies should be planted out where they will be surrounded by 

 ample water-space, under which conditions only are they really 

 effective. But if one has only a small garden and wishes to 

 secure a supply of flowers of the various varieties, the practice 

 I have outhned will prove as satisfactory as it is comfortable. 

 This easv-going practice will not, however, answer for the 

 tropical iSIymphceas which have to make a great growth in a 

 short time, and need not only a high temperature, but an 

 abundance of nutriment which can be quickly assimilated. 

 One of the minor results of the water-garden seems to be the 

 almost total disappearance of slugs from the borders and 

 the greenhouse, w-here the frogs hunt them when not engaged, 

 as they have recently been, in the intensely noisy courtship 

 incident to the season. <v ^r ^ 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N. Gerard. 



Nott's Excelsior Pea.— I have noticed for several seasons 

 past that the useful Pea known as Little Gem has deteriorated 

 very considerably, and gives a mixture of rank late vines. No 

 amount of selection appears to be sufficient to bring it back to 

 what it once was. This would be a matter of extreme regret 

 if it were not for the advent of another variety which is a con- 

 siderable improvement on Little Gem, even when it was at its 

 best. I refer to Nott's Excelsior, now catalogued by most of 

 the prominent seedsmen. This variety is only one foot in 

 height ; both foliage and pods are of a fine attractive color. It 

 endures drought in a remarkable manner, and is an abundant 

 bearer, every pod being filled tight with the most delicious- 

 flavored peas. In my opinion it is destined to displace not 

 only Little Gem, but almost every other variety of that type. 

 It certainly is worth a trial by every one who grows early 

 dwarf Peas. 



Bloomfield. N.J. IV.R. Smith. 



Correspondence. 



The Poison Ivy. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The genus Rhus belongs to the widely distributed 

 Anacardiacete or Cashew family, and numbers among its rela- 

 tives such species as the Cashew Nut, Pistachio, Mastic, Mango 

 and many other plants whose juices and resins form valued 

 dyes, gums and varnishes, and whose fruits, though often 

 poisonous in parts, are highly valued in tropical regions. The 

 leaves, berries, bark, wood and roots of many of them are used 

 for dyeing and tanning, and on account of the malic acid they 

 contain some of them are important condiments. 



Rhus Toxicodendron, known as the Poison Ivy and by many 

 other names, is a variable plant ranging over a wide area and 

 having three distinct forms which are connected, however, by 

 every gradation of mtermediate growth. The most noticeable 

 of these, although perhaps not the most common, is the so- 

 called R. radicans of LinucEus, with smooth entire shining 

 leaves and long petioles. It spreads but little by the root, and 

 the stems are always climbing, being closely attached to some 

 object by innumerable sucker rootlets. It has a wide range, 

 from eastern Asia westward, and its favorite habitat is in damp 

 spots and in woods, where it ascends to the tops of the highest 

 trees, its thickly set hori/.ontal brandies being one to two feet 

 long and half-clothing the trunks of trees in open land with a 

 pillar of luxuriant green, and thus rivals in beauty any other 

 plant of similar habit. 



The second, and with us the commonest, form (the true Rhus 

 Toxicodendron of the older botanists) is the ordinary l)ush Ivy, 

 which is an ever-present pest, being found in hedgerows 

 throughout large sections of the north temperate zone. 



The third form is, so far as I know, distinctly maritime in its 

 habits, being found in dry, almost barren sand along the At- 

 lantic seaboard, and, perhaps, elsewhere. The trunk of this 

 form is always buried, only the sparsely scattered branches 

 rising above the sand without seeming regularity, and appear- 

 ing like separate plants, each consisting of a slender branch- 

 less stem, seldom afoot in height, terminated by two or three 

 pale, thin, sickly leaves. I have seen it covering hundreds of 

 acres on our Atlantic islands and sand dunes, where it was 

 almost the only inhabitant of the drifting sand — so sparse and 

 weak as to hardly deserve the name of vegetation. It was my 

 fortune to live for some time with a colony of sailors upon one 

 of these bare islands where this Ivy composed, perhaps, 

 a third of all the woody vegetation. Though then highly 

 susceptible to the poison, I yet passed daily on foot through 

 long stretches of it, and even lived in it, and though I took no 

 precaution whatever, I did not feel the slightest irritation from 

 it. It was a revelation to my fellow-islanders when I told them 

 of its poisonous properties, for they liad never dreamed of 

 such a fact, nor had any of them ever been troubled by the 

 plant. From its enervated appearance I could easily imagine 

 that its desert surroundings had more or less tamed its viru- 

 lence. If such was the case we may infer, perliaps, that the 

 strength of the poison varies to some extent with the thrifti- 

 ness of the plant. 



The poison of the Ivy, though always present, probably, like 

 all sap, varies slightly in activity with the season, though, per- 

 haps, not more than does man's power of resisting it, for the 

 warm, perspiring skin of summer, with its open pores, takes 

 in and throws out juices much more readily and is more easily 

 irritated than tlie dry, firm skin and contracted pores of the 

 exposed parts in winter. Aside from the sand form, all parts 

 of the Poison Ivy are poisonous at all seasons, the root being 

 by far the most virulent of all. I have seen a robust physician 

 in the prime of health poisoned almost fatally, and rendered 

 nearly helpless for many days, in spite of all medicines, sim- 

 ply by pulling the roots. The toxic element seems to be vola- 

 tile, and any part when thoroughly dried becomes wholly 

 innoxious, but when cut with hay the latter will become dry, 

 while the Ivy-stems are still fresh and contain poison. In this 

 condition it is drawn to the barn, where the slowly evaporated 

 poison is absorbed by the surrounding hay, which thus be- 

 comes, in a degree, as poisonous as the Ivy itself. Through 

 this means I have known men severely poisoned while taking 

 out the hay in winter. It is owing to this volatilization of the 

 juices that the smoke of fiurning Ivy or of a brush heap con- 

 taining it ranks next to the root in the virulence of its poison. 

 Though the effects of Ivy are generally a harmless, but trouble- 

 some, irritation, it has been known to prove fatal in some very 

 severe cases, and susceptibility to its influence is by no means 

 desirable, though the irritation is said to be sometimes slightly 

 beneficial in cases of rheumatism. Some persons are never 

 affected by the poison, but each attack renders its victim more 

 susceptible, and some are even affected at times by air that has 

 blown over Ivy, especially if the plant has been recently cut. 

 When boys, my brother and I have mowed in Ivy when our 

 bare feet would be almost black with the dried juice, and we 

 used occasionally to " wash " our hands and faces in its leaves, 

 rubbing them on by the handful, in order to prove our immu- 

 nity from the poison, and always without feeling the slightest 

 effects. Neither of us would now care to repeat this, as the 

 Ivy has for a long time been poisonous to both of us. 



The poisoning, which is of an erysipelous nature, usually ap- 

 pears, in light cases, at the point where the Ivy-juice came in 

 contact with the skin, but severe cases are apt to centralize at 

 some point where the skin is tender. After such a localization 

 is once established each successive attack, if at all severe, is 

 apt to reappear at that point even at times when no irritation 

 is felt where the Ivy was applied. Personally I know of sev- 

 eral such cases, and this would tend to show that the poison 

 may be carried in the blood — a theory that is also upheld by 

 the fact that if one has just been severely poisoned he can, to 

 some extent, induce part of the eruptions to appear almost 

 wherever he chooses by keeping the skin locally irritated 

 during the period of incubation. 



As the remedies for this poison are so unsatisfactory, I ven- 

 ture a few suggestions gathered from experience. Any 

 scratching or rubbing of the poisoned surface or breaking 

 of the blisters tends to spread and augment the affection. 

 This has led me to adopt a cure that I find to be equal to all 

 ordinary cases, but which at times requires an amount of 



