600 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March 1, 1902. 
Fortunately, many poisonous plants have an evil 
taste or smell ; but this is not always tlie case. 
Children will eat tlie seeds of laburnum, for in- 
stance, as if they wf-ie green peas until tlie poison 
begins to take effect ; and yew, wh(^ther ealen by 
cattle or in the foim of the seeds by human beings 
appears tobepleasanc to the respective tastes of 
one and the other, though the poison sometimes 
acts so quickly that horses drop down dead be- 
fore the stofl' is even partly diaested. The only 
cases of plant poisoning now common among grown- 
up people are those caused by mistaking fungi 
lor mushrooms, or by making rash experiments in 
cooking the former, of which Gerard quaintly 
says: 'Beware of licking honey among the 
thorns, lest the sweetness of the one do not coun- 
tervail the sharpness and pricking of the other,' 
But with such a list of toxic plants as our flora 
can show there is always danger from certain 
species whose properties are quite unknown to 
ordinary mortals. Are they equally unknown to 
the heibalists and that mysterious trade-union 
of countrywomen and collectors of herbs by the 
roadsidewMio deal with them? Probably the trade 
in poisons not used foi serious ))urposes, but for 
what used in some parts of England to be called 
•giving a dose,' a punishment for unfaithful, 
unkind or drunken husbands, still exists as it did 
some forty years ago. The collectors of medicinal 
plants cut from the roadside and rubbish heaps, 
plants whose ' operations ' for good are quite 
well known and have been handed down by 
tradition for centuries, cannot be absolutely ig- 
norant of the other side ot the picture, the toxic 
properties which other plants or sometimes even 
ihe same plants contain. Foxglove, for instance 
from which digitalis used as a medicine is ex- 
tracted, is a good example of those kiH-or-cure 
plants. Every portion ot the plant is poisonous, 
leaves, flowers, stalks and berries. It affects the 
hearts and though useful in cases in which the pul- 
sations are abnormal, its symptoms when taken 
by persons in ordinary health are those of heart- 
tailure. Thus foxglove is not only a dangerous 
but a 'subtle' poison. 
Among other plants which may cause serious 
mischief, but are seldom suspected, are such 
harmless-looking flowers as the meadowsweet, 
herb-paris, the common fool's-parsley, found 
growing in quantities in the gardens of unlet 
houses and neglected ground which has been in 
cultivation, mezereon, columLine and laburnnm. 
Meadowsweet which is here indicted for the first 
time so far as the writer knows, among poisonous 
flowers has the following set against its came : — 
'A few years since two young men went from 
London to one of the Southern counties on a 
holiday excursion, on the last of which they 
gathered two very large sheaves of meadowsweet 
to bring home with them. These they placed in 
their bedroom in the village inn where they had 
to put up. In the course of the night they were 
taken violently ill, and the doctor who was 
called in stated that they weie .suHering from the 
poisonous pru'.sic acid fumes of the meadowsweet 
flowers which he said almost ovei powered him 
when he came into the room. The flowers were 
at once removed, and the young men, treated 
with suitable restoratives were by next morning 
Kufliciently recovered to undertake the Journey 
home.' Without knowing what the young men 
had had for supper, it seems jterhaps rather hasty 
to blame the meadowsweet. But the other flowers 
mentioned above have a bad record. To take 
(hem in order. Herb-paris which grows in woods 
and shady places, with four even-sized leaves in 
a star at the top of the stem, all growing out 
o|iposite each otlier, bears a large green solitary 
flower and a bluish-black berry later. All parts 
of the plant aie poisonous, the berries especially. 
Fool's-parsley is an unpleasantly smelling, very 
common plant which leaves its odour on the 
hand if the seeds are squeezed or drawn through 
it, is said to cause numbers cf deaths by being 
mistaken for parsley and cooked. In ihe case of 
poisoning by this plant it is recommended that 
milk should be given, the body sponged witii 
vinegar and mustard poultices put on the sufferer's 
legs. It is reckoned that one plant produced six 
thousand and eighty seeds, an unpleasant degree 
of fecundity for a poisonous weed. Columbine 
which is a wild plant with blue or white flowers 
as well as a domesticated one, lias '.a toxic prin- 
ciple like that of the monkshood more especially 
in the seeds, and the pretty red berries of the 
mezereon are responsible for the death or illness 
of children nearly every autumn. They are like 
cherries and easily picked from the low bushes 
on which tliey grow. A dozen are said to be 
enough to cause death though this must probably 
depend on the slate of the eater's health. The 
laburnum with its golden rain, is potentially a 
kind of upas tree. The writer has only known 
of two deaths of children caused by eating the 
beans in the green pods, but it is said to be a 
frequent cause of death every year on the Con- 
tinent, where possibly children aie less naturally 
careful about poisonous plants than those in 
England to whom risks of this kind are usually 
and properly made part of the 'black list' of 
the nursery-book of ' Don'ts,' The seeds will 
even poison poultry if they pick tbem up .after 
they have dropped from the pod. Laburnum is of 
comparatively recent intioduction into Britain or 
it would probably eailier have been accorded a 
jilace among the severely poisonous plants dreaded 
by all. 
Of these the deadly nightshade and hemlock 
are the best known in story, while the yew is 
most dangerous because far more common. 
Green hellebore and monkshood are also classed in 
the list of the ranker poisons. Deadly nightshade 
is rather a rare plant, yet it may be seen often 
enough on the sides of woods where there are 
old walls. Several plants were lecently recog- 
nised growing on a wall by the roadside between 
Beading and Pangbourne, It is poisonous through- 
out. The flowers are large single purple bells 
and the berries black and shiny like a black 
cheriy. The author of the chapter referred toa 
at the beginning of this article says of this dan- 
gerous plant that the roots are computed to bo 
five times more poisonous than the berries, that 
human beings have been found more suscep- 
tible to it than animals, and carnivorus 
animals more so than others. Children suffer 
more in proportion to the quantity of poison 
taken than do adults. But cases ot nightshade 
poisoning are very rare though two were reported 
some three years ago. Possibly the berries often fail 
to ripen, and so are less attractive in appearance. 
The poisonous hemlocks are two, one of which 
(the common hemlock) is said to have been the 
plant from which the Athenians prepared their 
poison for executing citizens condemned to death 
and the other, the ■vvater-hemlock or cowbane, ia 
