POISONOUS PLANTS 



141 



CONIFERS. 



The chief poisonous species of the ConiferaB, or pine 

 family, found in Great Britain and Europe, are Taxus 

 haccata, or yew, and the shrubs of the juniperus species, such 

 as savin. Poisoning 

 by turpentine and 

 savin have been de- 

 scribed under' a pre- 

 vious heading, and 

 therefore a descrip- 

 tion of yew poisoning 

 only will be given at 

 this point. 



Yew. — The leaves 

 of the common yew, 

 or Taxus haccata, and 

 its varieties, such as 

 the Irish yew {Taxus 

 fastigiata), and yellow 

 yew, have long been 

 known to be poisonous, 

 and contain as active 

 principle the alkaloid 

 taxine. The same 

 active principle is 

 probably contained in 

 the American species, 

 Taxus minor, found 

 in the North-Eastern 

 United States, and 

 known there as com- t 



mon yew, ground hemlock, or poison hemlock. 



This alkaloid occurs in the leaves of all species, but only 

 in small proportion in the berries. According to Thorpe 

 and Stubbs* the undried leaves yield on extraction from 



* Transactions of the Chemical Society, 1902, p. 874. 



Fig. 1. — Taxus Baocata (Common Yew). 

 (From Smith's ' Veterinary Hygiene. ') 



