NEW JERSEY 



Agricultural Experiment Stations. 



BULLETIN 135. 



FEBRUARY 8, 1899. 







The Poisonous Plants of New Jersey. 



r.Y BYRON 1>. HA1 



Since the Department of Botany was established in the Experi- 

 ment Station, ten year? ago, there have been, from time to time, in- 

 quiries made concerning many plants that are considered, or alleged 

 to be. poisonous. In only two instances 9 ' 1 has this subject received 

 any consideration in the annual reports, and therefore the present 

 purpose is to bring t<» the people of New Jersey a general statement 

 of the poisonous plants growing naturally or cultivated withiil the 

 - ta 



The number of persons who are annually more or less injured by 

 the toxic properties of plants is considerable, while the deaths from 

 the same causes are not a few. In 1896, for example, there was a 

 fatal case within a dozen miles of the Experiment Station. Four 

 children, returning from school, mistook water hemlock roots recently 

 unearthed for those of some edible plant. After reaching home, one 

 of the children became dizzy, nauseated, went into convulsions, and 

 soon died. The other three children experienced a similar poison- 

 ing, but were finally restored to health. 



In < October last an it. made of a case of fatal poison- 



ing in Newark, where a boy of five years had eaten freely of the half- 

 grown capsules of the common thornapple (Ac S I. 

 in the afternoon, and. with all the usual characteristics of stramonium 

 poisoning, the child died early the next morn 



isonotu Plants in New Jersey— A Preliminary Report In annual 

 994, pages 401-419, and 1895, page* Ml 



