POISONOUS PLANTS 149 



a climber, twining over hedges, known by its heart-shaped, 

 shining leaves, with a tapering point turning blackish in 

 autumn. The berries are scarlet It is found extensively 

 in England, not in Scotland, and in Ireland only on the 

 banks of Lough Gill in Sligo.* 



The active principle probably resembles bryonin, the 

 purgative glucoside of the white bryony. Cornevin states 

 that the black bryony acts as a narcoto-irritant when the 

 fruit is taken, but that the leaves are eaten by goats and 

 sheep without ill effect. 



COLCHICACE.X. 



This order comprises some important medicinal and 

 poisonous plants. The veratrums include VeratrUm album 

 and Veratrum viride, neither found wild in England, whilst 

 in America, in addition, Veratrium californicitm is noted as 

 poisonous, as also is the officinal Mexican ScTiwnocaulon 

 officinale. V. viride is known in the Northern and Eastern 

 United States as swamp hellebore, American white helle- 

 bore, false hellebore, or Indian poke. Sheep are said to eat 

 the young leaves and shoots with apparent relish, but the 

 seeds are poisonous to fowls. For an account of veratrum 

 poisoning reference may be made to veratrine. Other 

 dangerous American species of this order are Chrosperma 

 muscatoxicum, fly poison, or crow poison, the bulbs of which, 

 mashed with molasses, are used to stupefy flies ; Zygadenus 

 venenosus, or death camas, in distinction from the true 

 edible camas {Quamasia quamash) ; and Z. elegans, or alkali 

 grass. The most important and best known from the point 

 of view of toxicology of this order is Colchicum awtumnale, 

 or meadow saffron, and the European literature contains 

 several records of the poisoning of animals by it. 



Colchicum autumnale — ^the common colchicum, meadow 

 crocus, or meadow saffron (Pig. 4). ' At the time of flower- 

 ing, in August, there are no leaves, the brown bulb ending 



* Bentham and Hooker, ' British Flora,' 1908, p. 455. 



