it. Unfortunately they chose the poison ivy from the beauty 
of its colouring, to adorn the pulpit: one after another they 
became ill, some more and some less. The German gover- 
ness was confined to her bed for more than a week, and 
suffered horribly. One lady consulted a specialist for skin 
disease and was sent to Harrogate for three weeks for blood 
poisoning. I was seriously alarmed about it, when one day 
three of the under-gardeners were laid up with it, though very 
slightly. That settled the matter, it was Rhus Toxicodendron, 
and not blood poisoning at all! I heard a story of a lady 
living in the country who suffered every autumn from eczema 
and blood poisoning ; so bad was it that her husband thought 
the house unhealthy, and decided to leave it and take another: 
however, his wife was so fond of a very fine plant of Rhus 
which they had in the garden that she had it moved to the 
new house, and it was not till some time after that she 
discovered that it was the cause of her illness. It is curious 
that some people are not affected by it at all; but for those 
that are, the disease it produces is so terribly painful that the 
plant should be most carefully avoided. The only one in my 
garden that people could easily get access to, I have had taken 
up and burnt. Mrs. Tweedie in her travels in Mexico 
mentions that she was confined to her bed for fifteen days 
from poison ivy. She says, ‘“ The parasite grows generally in 
shady damp barrancas, it is most poisonous when in bloom ; 
then the pollen flies, and you may be poisoned without 
touching the plant. The Indians live in constant dread of 
approaching the creeper. The poison raises large lumps, red 
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