4 OUR POISONOUS PLANTS. 
size depending a good deal upon the haunt of the whale; some 
regions having larger specimens than others. If the whales are 
descendants of our marine carnivora we should expect them to 
preserve something like the same growth rates, for this feature 
seems to be tolerably permanent in any group of related animals. 
The rate of growth, deducible from the observations of the prac- 
tical students of the whale, coincides pretty closely with what we 
should be inclined to expect on the supposition that the cetacea 
were descended from some ancestor like the marine carnivora. 
The great decline of the whale fishery in all countries seems 
likely to deprive us of the ill-used opportunities, which naturalists 
have long had, of making themselves acquainted with the habits 
of the greatest of the mammals. There are many questions which 
should be discussed and settled before the class of clear headed 
and observant whalemen has passed away; else we may remain 
for centuries without a competent knowledge of the ways of this, 
the greatest living monument of animal life. 
OUR POISONOUS PLANTS. 
BY W. W. BAILEY. 
pre ania 
_ Tue poisonous plants of our northern woods are not so numer- 
. ous but that they may siis be learned. Of them certain members 
3 Anacardiaceæ) have the most evil reputa- 
nded with the beautiful Cormua florida, which unfortu- 
ng , iliar name. This tree is’ perfectly 
fonocent and i is so highly ornamental that it would be a shame if 
| simple ignorance it should ever be cut down. _ s 
rieties of Rhus toxicodendron, distinguished — 
; a atet When these are cut-lobed, the 
dent iron (Fig. 1); when entire, it bears the name 
S me authors have considered them distinct spe- 
