448 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Flowers irregular. 



Upper sepal spurred ; petals 4 7 Delphinium 



Upper sepal hooded 3 Aconitum 



1. Caltha L. Marsh Marigold 



Herbs with heart-shaped or kidney-form leaves; flowers yellow, white or 

 pink; sepals large, 5-9, petal-like; petals none; stamens numerous; pistils 5-10; 

 styles nearly wanting; pods follicles, spreading, many seeded; marsh plants of 

 temperate and colder regions. About 8 species ; 3 species native to Eastern North 

 America, and 1 species common in the Rocky Mountains at high altitudes. 



Fig. 223. Black Hellebore (.Helle- 

 borus niger). EJntire plant. The roots 

 contain a purgative substance that is 

 poisonous in over-doses. (From Vesque's 

 Traite de Botanique.) 



Caltha palustris L. Marsh Marigold 



A stout, glabrous perennial with a hollow stem from 1-2 feet high; the 

 basal leaves on long petioles, leaves reniform; upper leaves shorter, petioled 

 and sessile; flowers with yellow sepals. 



Occurs in swamps and meadows. 



Poisonous properties. The marsh marigold or cowslip is regarded as poison- 

 ous in Europe. In this country, however, it is frequently used as a pot herb. 

 The flower buds are sometimes pickled. Coville says : 



By many it is considered superior to any other plant used in this way. There is 

 no doubt that boiling dissipates the active principles found in the plant. 



Stebler and Schroter say that it is poisonous in a green stat^, and Rusby 

 states that when fed with hay it produces diarrhoea and stoppage of the 

 flow of milk. According to Lloyd, it contains a small quantity of an acrid 

 substance identical with the acrid oil of Ranunculus. Cattle and sheep refuse 



