n] Ranunculacese 11 



bourhood, it is used by the peasantry as fodder. They collect it in 

 boats and give it to their cows and horses, allowing the former about 

 twenty to thirty pounds a day. One man is said to have kept five 

 cows and a horse, with httle other food but what they coidd pick up on 

 the heath, using no hay but when the river was frozen. Hogs eat it 

 and will Uve upon it alone imtil put up to fatten." (Johnson and 

 Sowerby — Useful Plants of Great Britain.) 



R. sceleratus L., or Celery-leaved Buttercup, is probably the most 

 toxic species, and it is stated that in man a single flower may cause 

 poisonous symptoms resembling those due to Anemone and Colchicum. 

 It is considered especially dangerous to cattle, and has caused many 

 losses : among its French names are Mort aux Vaches, and Herbe sar- 

 donique. Poor people have been known to eat the young shoots when , 

 boiled, heat dispelling the poison. 



R. Flammula L., the Lesser Spearwort, has repeatedly proved fatal 

 to horses and cattle. 



R. bulbosus L., the Bulbous Buttercup, is somewhat variable in 

 toxicity, and is least dangerous after the flowers have dropped their 

 corolla, and the bulb-like rootstock is most harmful in autumn and 

 winter. The flowers are the most dangerous part. 



R. Ficaria L., Lesser Celandine, varies in toxicity with locahty and 

 season, being most harmful at the flowering period. It is stated that 

 wood-pigeons eat the roots with avidity, and that the young shoots 

 have been eaten as a salad in Germany, as they are not toxic. An^ 

 English veterinary surgeon (Flower) recorded that three heifers were 

 poisoned by it {Vide Comevin). 



R. acris L., Acrid Buttercup or Tall Crowfoot, is a frequent cause of 

 poisoning in cattle, and Comevin says it is perhaps the species which 

 causes the most accidents. 



Toxic Principle. The buttercups contain an acrid and bitter juice, 

 the chemical properties and composition of which are not well known, 

 but it is beheved that the substance is identical with the Anemonin of 



the Anemone sp. (q.v.). Beckurts isolated Anemonin and Anemonic 



add from R. acer. Pott, however, states that the poisonous species 



contain the two alkaloids Aconitine and Delphinine. 



S^ptoms. The buttercups are acrid, burning and narcotic, causing 



irritation of the mucous membrane, with inflammation of the intestinal 



tract. 



Comevin shows that R. sceleraius induces gastro-enteritis, cohc, 



diarrhoea with excretion of black foul-smeUing faeces, vomiting when 



