32 



Antidote. — Xo antidote has been suggested, but Dr. Stalker states 

 that provided the animals are given a proper and nutritious diet, they 

 will be greatly benefited by daily doses of 2 ounces of epsom salts, 

 with 2 drachms of sulphate of iron and 1 drachm of nux vomica. 



The percentage of rattlebox in meadow hay will be materially reduced 

 if the fields are burned over when the seeds mature the preceding sum- 

 mer. The growth of perennial grasses will not be materially affected 

 thereby. 



SPURGE FAMILY (EUPHQRBIACEAE). 



SPURGES. 



Euphorbia. 



The spurge family, of which the Eivphorbias constitute the typical 

 genus, is represented in the United States by about 18 genera and over 

 200 species, many being widely and abundantly distributed in the 

 colder as well as in the hotter sections of the country, though the 

 species are more numerous in the latter. All contain a milky juice 

 which is more or less acrid and irritating to the skin. Several exotic 

 representatives of the order, such as the Brazilian jmysic nut [Jatro- 

 plia urens), the European dog's mercuiy (Mercurialis perennis), and the 

 East Indian Croton tiglium, the source of croton oil, are well known 

 to be violent poisons. The deadly manchineel (Rippomane mancinella) 

 occurs in Florida as well as in the West Indies, and the castor-oil plant 

 (Bicinus comnuuris) is largely cultivated and introduced in the South- 

 ern and Western States. Many species are known to produce dis- 

 agreeable skin eruptions, either on account of their stinging hairs, as 

 in the Southern spurge nettle (Jatropha stimulosa) and in Tragia nepe- 

 taefolia, or by their acrid juice. Some, such as Croton setigerus of Cali- 

 fornia and Euphorbia marginata (fig. 16), furnish a deleterious honey, 

 and some are used as fish and arrow poisons. 



A large proportion of these plants belong to the spurge genus proper 

 (Euphorbia). It is a genus characterized by its milky juice and its 

 incomplete and mostly inconspicuous flowers. Several of the latter are 

 grouped together on a small receptacle surrounded by an involucre, 

 sometimes showy, the whole having the appearance of a single flower. 

 One flower from each involucre finally develops a conspicuously three- 

 celled and three-seeded fruit. The leaves assume brilliant colors in 

 some species, which are therefore cultivated for ornament. The native 

 species are mostly herbaceous. The spurges maintain the general 

 reputation of the family as poisonous plants in all of the ways indicated 

 above, and additionally by overdoses when used as a purgative, by 

 poisoning cattle that eat of them or drink water into which the plants 

 have been thrown, and indirectly, it is claimed, by poisoning the milk 

 of animals that have fed upon the various species. Gardeners are 

 sometimes poisoned while trimming the cultivated plants (Poinsettias). 

 Spurge poisoning is due to two or three constituents which are, per- 

 haps, common to all the species, but the subject has not been very 



