THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
59 
The poison ivy is often mistaken for the Virginia creeper 
or woodbine (Ampelopsis qninquef olia) . From this it may 
be distinguished by its three leaflets, of irregular outline, its 
root-clothed or hairy stems, and gray berries. We say gray. 
They are rather a sickly yellow. Ampelopsis climbs by tend- 
rils which are attenuated stem axes. Each tendil is capped 
by an adhesive disk or cup. The poison ivy, on the other 
hand, clings by its aerial roots. 
In cross section R. toxicodendron shows eccentric rings, 
the pith lying close to the less-exposed side, or nearest the sup- 
porting object. The leaves color gorgeously in autumn, as- 
suming shades of orange, yellow, scarlet, or crimson. Flung 
high over some elm or evergreen, the trails are extremely 
brilliant. 
Both of these dangerous plants are all two frequent. State 
laws or municipal ordinances are powerless against ivy. In 
the city of Providence, it prevails on some of our principal 
streets; one sees it everywhere in Newport and about Narra- 
gansett Pier. Indeed, near the salt water resorts it seems to es- 
pecially thrive. No one can tell how many persons annually 
suffer from it. Over and over again the writer has pointed 
out the two shrubs, or written about them in the public prints^ 
but no action appears to be taken against them. Like moths 
to the candle, the victims return. 
So much for our own tactile poisons. There are those 
who proudly claim to be poisoned by parsnips even. Science 
does not deny this, but waits for proof. Is it not true, that 
a few (white) people are made sick by melons; yet shall we 
forswear neither the luscious cantaloupe, nor the succulent 
watermelon It is only right to mention the plants that are 
poisonous in the other ways than by touch. Of these there are 
many. Some buttercups are sharply acrid ; the monkshoods or 
aconites violently poisonous; the fox-glove also; while the 
leaves and rootstocks of mandrake {Podophyllum) are to be 
