i8 



The Irish Naturalist. 



February, 



Before concluding, I must quote from a letter which 

 my deeply-lamented friend, the late Nathaniel Colgan, 

 wrote to me on the subject of this plant's general reputation 

 in the summer of 1918 : — 



" Your investigations into the properties of CEnanthe 

 crocata are very interesting. Threlkeld enlarges a good 

 deal on this plant, quoting from the Phil. Trans. Dr. 

 Vaughan's classical instance, if I may so call it, of the 

 poisoning of 5 out of 8 lads at Clonmel who ate the 

 roots. Vaughan in his account, as quoted by Threlkeld, 

 says, ' A Dutchman was poysoned by the Tops Boiled 

 in his Pottage, which he took for Apium palustre.' 

 So Dutchmen are more sensitive than Ballyhyland 

 cattle. Threlkeld himself says of the plant ' The very 

 Aspect of it seems to me always grim and dismal, the 

 Savour unpleasant. I have seen great plent of it in 

 Cumberland, where our Country People do call it Dead 

 Tongue, and they use it when boiled like a Poultis to 

 the galled Backs of their Horses.' There is evidently 

 a lot of ancient lore connected with the plant." 



Opinions may differ as to the unpleasantness of the 

 plant's " aspect " and " savour ; " but I think its character 

 as a favourite food of cattle raises points on which an 

 agreed judgment is clearly desirable. Giraldus Cambrensis 

 might have found the case of (Enanthe crocata a better 

 proof than many that he brought forward of the innate 

 hostility of the soil of Ireland to poison. 



Dublin. 



