ELEMENTARY BOTANY III 



Many domestic animals are killed by eating the plant in 

 hay. It should be exterminated by hand pulling before 

 the seeds mature. 



Water Hemlock, Cicuta maculata. — (Spotted parsley, 

 snakeweed, beaver poison, musquash root, muskrat weed, 

 cowbane, spotted cowbane, children's bane, death of man.) 

 This is a smooth, erect perennial, three to six feet tall, stiff 

 hollow stem, streaked with purple, twice to thrice decom- 

 pound leaves with leaflets finely serrated, the veins run- 

 ning mostly to the notches instead of, as usual, to the 

 points of the teeth. The plant is easily recognized by 

 the root, which consists of a clump of thick fleshy tubers, 

 each from one to three inches long. It is quite common 

 in swamps and wet pastures throughout the United States 

 and Canada, but less common in the arid regions west of 

 the Mississippi. The flowers are white, in umbels two to 

 three inches across, and appear in August. 



The root is especially dangerous, because of its whole- 

 some appearance and aromatic taste, which often tempts 

 children to eat it. No estimate of the annual damage to 

 stock can be made. Cattle are sometimes poisoned by 

 eating the roots and even by drinking the water of pools 

 into which these have been trampled. 



For nature study, children in every school, city and 

 country, should be given a clear idea of this plant, — root, 

 stem, leaf, flower, and seed, — and in rural districts they 

 should make careful surveys to discover its abundance 

 and distribution and adopt practicable measures for its 

 extermination. 



Pokeweed, Phytolacca decandra. — This is not very poi- 

 sonous, and its- succulent shoots are widely esteemed for 



