THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
61 
ander, lovage, caraway, anise, etc. Some of these, even in 
the wild state, are active poisons. It never does to fool with 
them. The pronounced poisons are the swamp or water-hem- 
lock (Cicuta maculata), very common, the true hemlock {Co- 
nium maculatum) occasional and known by its mouse-like odor, 
spotted stems, white flowers and parsley-like leaves; and fools 
parsley, (Aethusa cynapium), sometimes found in waste 
places. The last two are horribly dangerous, but we say 
again in regard to them all, be careful. Do not try experi- 
ments with them, if they invite eating. Conium^ by the way 
was the ''Hemlock" of classic history used to elminate un- 
desirable friends or too active politicians. 
Lobelia inUata, Indian tobacco, is a "noted quack medi- 
cine", and generally reputed poisonous. However, I knew a 
reputable doctor of the old school who always maintained to 
the contrary and cited how he had used it with impunity. It 
will be recalled on the authority of Darlington that quacks 
called the cardinal flower ''highbelia" in distinction from ''Low- 
belia", the Indian tobacco ! 
In Ericaceae we have the mountain-laurel, (Kalmia lati- 
folia), and the smaller Kalmia augustifolia, or "lamb-kill", 
about the noxious properties of which there is little question, 
I have been told that an infusion of the leaves of either of them 
forms a good fly poison. I have never tried it. 
The foliage of Andromeda Mariana is used in a similar 
way. Then there is the bear-berry, (Artostaphyllos uva-ursi) 
employed in medicine. It literally carpets portions of Rhode 
Island, and with its pink urn-shaped corollas is as pretty nearly 
as Epigaea. 
The nightshade family, Solanaceae is one of which the 
botanist is always shy. It boasts among its useful plants the 
potato, tomato, egg-plant, cherry-tomato and tobacco. 
The last, useful and grateful beyond question, has 
also to be classed as noxious. Like some others 
