to be fed and petted. He called to us 

 whenever we appeared, and it seemed 

 odd enough to have a speaking acquaint- 

 ance with a bird out of sight among the 

 branches. Evidently, his feelings were 

 deeply injured when we failed to bring 

 his food to the tree-tops, and he ex- 

 pressed his opinion of our neglect in no 

 measured terms. He came back less and 

 less frequently, and one day all our call- 

 ing brought no response. Instinct was 

 too strong and he had taken his chances. 

 Two or three days later we left home, 

 and the house was closed. 



In the autumn, my next door neighbor 

 remarked to me : "I wonder what be- 

 came of that robin of yours. He was 

 calling around here all the while you 

 were gone ; at least I supposed it was 

 he." 



Poor, brave, confiding little Dingo ! 

 we shall never know how he fared. We 

 can only hope 



"That Being who has taken 

 Care for every living thing, 

 In summer, winter, fall and spring," 

 took care of him. 



Elizabeth Miles Derrickson. 



POISONOUS PLANTS. 



It is singular that writers do not 

 oftener mention the fact, when the plants 

 described by them are of a poisonous 

 nature. There is such widespread ignor- 

 ance on the subject that more knowledge 

 is greatly needed. 



Especially is this the case with chil- 

 dren, who should be protected from the 

 effects of poisonous plants by a knowl- 

 edge of their dangerous property, and 

 at the same time have removed their 

 fears of other plants, wholly innocent, 

 but which are often regarded as danger- 

 ous. Thus I find that our beautiful fiye- 

 leaved ivy, or Virginia creeper, Ampel- 

 opsis quinque -folia, is regarded as poison- 

 ous by many people who do not appear 

 to distinguish between it and the very 

 dissimilar three-leaved ivy, or poison 

 oak, Rhus radicans. That it is a wild ivy 

 seems to be sufficient to excite their fears. 



Buttercups are said to be so poisonous 

 as to inflame the skin of tender fingers, 

 but I have never known of a case of the 

 kind. But it is quite different with the 

 plants of the parsley family, many of 

 which are very poisonous. How often 

 we hear of people being poisoned, some- 

 times fatally, with fool's parsley, or its 

 close relatives the water parsley, water 

 hemlock, poison hemlock, etc. 



The white hellebore, Veratrum viride, 

 is another poisonous plant common in 

 our woods. Then there are the different 



varieties of larkspur, of which there are 

 said to be over twenty-five species native 

 to the United States, and which are more 

 or less poisonous in character. 



The common corn cockle, Agrostemma 

 githago, has been known to produce fatal 

 poisoning, but this is usually caused by 

 eating food made from flour containing 

 the cockle seed. 



The wild black cherry, Prunus serotina, 

 though a valuable tree and fruit, has 

 been known to poison cattle by their hav- 

 ing eaten the wilted leaves ; and children 

 have been fatally poisoned by swallow- 

 ing the fruit whole, and by eating the 

 kernels of the seeds. 



The rank and ill-smelling Jimson 

 weed, Datura stramonium, is very poi- 

 sonous, and several cases of poisoning by 

 it have been reported, though the rank, 

 disagreeable odor one would suppose 

 would be sufficient to prevent any one 

 from handling it unnecessarilv. 



The nuts of the horse-chestnut, or 

 buckeye, are poisonous, as are also the 

 berries of the bittersweet, and wild 

 bryony. 



Among- other poisonous plants may be 

 mentioned pokeweed, rattlebox or wild 

 pea, spurge, snow on the mountain, the 

 laurels, nightshade, sneezewort, water 

 dropwort, and the seeds of the labur- 

 num and the catalpa tree, and of the 

 yellow and the rough-podded vetches. 

 Elma Iona Locke. 



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