PRINCIPAL POISONOUS PLANTS OF THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In view of the frequent results of ignorance with regard to poisonous 

 plants, whether the occasional loss of human life, the large sacrifice of 

 animals, and the consequent financial loss, or the annoyance and dis- 

 tress of countless minor cases of human poisoning, it is remarkable 

 that no systematic treatise has been published concerning those that 

 exist in the United States. 



Statistics in regard to tbem are lacking on account of a general 

 ignorance of the subject, and it is therefore impossible to form even an 

 approximate estimate of the amount of damage done by them. The 

 various species of water hemlock (Cicuta) kill a number of children 

 each year. In the State of New Jersey two quadruple cases of water 

 hemlock poisoning were reported during the spring of 1896, which 

 resulted fatally to two of the eight individuals affected. The number 

 of cattle killed by one species of Cicuta in Oregon alone is estimated 

 to be over one hundred per annum. The number of deaths among 

 caftle which are attributed to loco weed is very large, and to rid itself 

 of this pest the State of Colorado paid out nearly $200,000 in bounties 

 between March 14, 1881, and February 18, 1885. On the latter date 

 the law was repealed. The distress caused by poison ivy is being 

 constantly experienced by thousands of individuals. 



Setting aside the criminal uses of poisonous plants, there are some 

 other legal problems connected with them which are of general public 

 interest. The common law of England holds a person responsible for 

 damage accruing from the possession and cultivation of poisonous plants. 

 In one case, for example, a jury rendered judgment in favor of a plain- 

 tiff whose horse was poisoned from eating branches of a yew which 

 hung over a fence from an adjoining yard. A similar judgment for 

 $3,500 has recently been rendered by a New York court against the 

 directors of a cemetery in a case of poisoning due to poison ivy which 

 had been allowed to grow within the grounds. 



All poisonous plants are not equally injurious to all persons, nor to 

 all forms of life. The most familiar illustration of this is to be found 

 in the action of poison ivy. It has no apparent external effect upon 

 animals, and a few of them, such as the horse, mule, and goat, eat its 



9 



