LILIACE^ 6ll 



A perennial with a creeping underground stem or rhizome. The 

 leafy stems grow from 2 to 3 feet high, the leaves being 

 opposite and heart-shaped, with coarse teeth, and the whole plant 

 covered with stinging hairs. The small green flowers are arranged 

 in knotted spikes in the axils of the leaves. 



These nettles grow most luxuriantly on good land, and are 

 difficult to extirpate in such situations. Mowing as soon as the 

 shoots spring up in early summer, and continued later, exhausts 

 them in time, although the most efficient method of exteimination 

 is to dig up the rhizomes completely. 



LILIACE.S. — Belonging to this Order is Meadow Saffron 

 (Cokhicum autumnah L.), a poisonous plant, sometimes abundant 

 in certain districts in the rich moist meadows bordering rivers. 

 The corm of the plant is about the size of a small tulip bulb. 

 From it one or more pale purplish-pink flowers resembling 

 crocuses are sent up in early autumn. The flowers fade in a 

 few days and nothing more is seen of the plant until spring, when 

 broad, upright, flat leaves, 6 to 10 inches long, are sent above 

 ground. At the same time an oblong seed-vessel is lifted up. 



Cattle are not unfrequently poisoned through eating the leaves 

 of meadow saffron, which together with the flowers, seeds and 

 corms, contain the alkaloid colchicine. 



The plant is most virulent in a green state, or when slightly 

 withered, but even when dry contains enough of the poisonous 

 compound to be injurious. Experiment has shown that from 

 3 to 5 lbs. of green leaves and seed-vessels are necessary to 

 act fatally upon a cow ; the poison, however, appears to be 

 cumulative and a small quantity eaten each day with other food 

 for a few days may lead to fatal results. 



Meadow saffron can be readily exterminated by pulling off 

 the leaves by hand^as soon as they appear in spring. The 

 destruction of the leaves should be repeated for one or two 

 seasons, and if this practice is carefully and systematically carried 

 out there is no need to dig up the corms. 



