31 



RATTLEBOX. 



Crotalaria sagittalis L. 



Other names: Kattleweed; wild pea. (Fig. 14.) 



Description and habitat. — A hairy annual, 3 to 18 inches high, with 

 simple undivided leaves, 1 to 2 inches long, and small yellow pea-like 

 flowers appearing in July. The seed pods are about an inch in length 

 when mature, and are nearly black. They are much inflated, and as 

 the walls, are stiff and thin and very resonant, they make excellent 

 miniature rattles when the seeds 

 have become detached. The rat- 

 tlebox is native in low, sandy soils 

 from the Atlantic westward to Min- 

 nesota and eastern Kansas; also 

 in New Mexico. It is common in 

 Connecticut, New Jersey, and 

 North Carolina, and in some years 

 is very abundant in bottom lands 

 along the valley of the Missouri, 

 in South Dakota and Iowa. 



Poisonous element. — The poison- 

 ous constituent is unknown, but 

 it resides both in the leaves and in 

 the seeds. Horses and sometimes 

 cattle are killed by eating grass or 

 meadow hay mixed with the plant. 

 They are not poisoned so often by 

 eating the plant in the field. Pub- 

 lic attention was first called to the 

 poisonous nature of rattlebox by 

 Dr. Stalker, of Iowa, who in 1884, 

 while investigating the cause of 

 "bottom disease," then prevalent 

 among horses in Iowa, was led to 

 believe that it was mostly if not 

 altogether attributable to this 

 plant. Extracts were prepared which, when fed to young horses, pro- 

 duced analogous symptoms and death. The pronounced symptoms for 

 a moderate dose were great stupor and loud, heavy breathing. A larger 

 dose caused death in one and one-half hours. Small doses repeated 

 daily induced the characteristic stupor on the fifth day, and death on 

 the thirteenth. 



Symptoms. — As generally described from accidental cases, the symp- 

 toms are much more prolonged, death resulting only after several weeks 

 or months. There is a general decline of vigor, and a gradual loss of 

 flesh as observed in the case of loco, with which this plant is closely 

 related. The rattlebox does not, however, appear so often to produce 

 the craziness characteristic of loco. 



Fig. 14.— Rattlebox (Crotalaria sagittalis): a, 

 Avhole plant ; b, cross section of seed pod — both 

 one-third natural size. 



