Unpalatable Leaves, 29 



Veratrum and Colchicum, Conium, Cyclamen, Aristo- 

 locMa, Asarum, Sambucus ebulus, Asperula odorata, of 

 all Crassulacese, and of many other plants, are never 

 touched by any ruminant. Some goats had one day 

 unluckily got into the kitchen-garden of my summer 

 residence. I noticed that they set to work vigorously 

 at the cabbage, but passed over the leaves of the let- 

 tuce. This led me to make the experiment of pre- 

 senting leaves of Lactuca, Chelidonium, Papaver, and 

 Euphorbia to different ruminants; when I soon found 

 that they would rather go without food at aU than 

 submit to such a diet.'^ So again the green leaves of 

 the Aposeris fcetida, which are full of milky juice — a 

 plant which in the open spaces of the North-Alpine 

 woods often covers the ground in masses — are never 

 touched by the cattle which are driven to the forest 

 pastures. The fact that many plants (Ballota, Lamium, 

 Geranium Rohertianum, Linaria vulgaris, Lepidium 



^ This is the more remarkable, because lettuce leaves, as is well 

 known, are readily eaten by numerous caterpillars. That which is 

 aoxight for by one animal is frequently noxious to another ; nay it 

 often happens that some chemical compound in a plant is a deadly 

 poison to one animal, while to a second it is not only harmless but 

 an object of eager search. The Haltica atropce AU., for example 

 mentioned in the preceding note, is not injured by the alkaloid 

 contained in the leaf of the Deadly Nightshade, which to many 

 animals is a violent poison. Thrushes also eat the berries of the 

 Atropa without harm, whilst they are made ill by the Phytolacca 

 berries, which many other birds feed on without iujury. [Eabbits 

 also eat the Deadly Nightshade with apparent impunity. I have 

 myself fed a rabbit for a week on this plant exclusively. — See 

 Medical Times and Gazette, 1867. — Editor.] 



