292 Veterinary Medicine. 



Leucothoe Catesbaea (branch ivy or calf-kill of the Alle- 

 gheny mountains) and L. Racemosa (swamp L- of the Atlantic 

 Seaboard) prove fatal to all kinds of stock that eat them. 



Pieris Floribunda (Mountain fetter bush of Virginia and 

 Georgia) and P. Mariana (stagger-bush of the eastern states) 

 are destructive to sheep and calves. 



Rhododendron Maxima (the great laurel of the Alleghanies 

 and common in ornamental grounds) and R. Californicum are 

 notoriously poisonous to stock. 



DOGBANE FAMILY. 



In Apocynaceae must be named the Nerium Oleander (a 

 common house-plant in the north and a garden or wild plant in 

 the south and west), Thevetia and Apocynum Androsaemifol- 

 ium (spreading dogbane) as most deadly acrid poisons to all kinds 

 of stock. In my experience a horse cropping a few leaves from an 

 oleander died in a few hours with violent gastro-enteritis. ■ The 

 dogbane is less poisonous when dried in hay. 



MILKWEED FAMILY. 



Asclepias Syriaca (common milkweed of the Old and New 

 World) is a violent irritant poison for man and beast. 



Asclepias Eriocarpa (California milkweed) has proved es- 

 pecially deadly to sheep in barren valleys where other vegetation 

 is scanty. Also when mixed with hay. 



Asclepias Mexicana (narrow smooth-leaf milkweed of the 

 Pacific coast) has proved especially fatal to sheep, calves and 

 cows that ate it mixed with hay. 



POTATO FAMILY. 



Many members of the Solanaceae are poisonous, but mainly 

 through their narcotic properties. 



Datura Stramonium (thorn apple, Jimson weed) now com- 

 mon in the United States proves fatal to cattle eating the young 

 leaves mixed with hay. 



