46 hijwnons Fodder and Poisonous Plants. 
poisoning resulting from eating any of the other plants. The 
seeds of corn cockle are frequently present amongst oats, and 
cases have occurred where horses have been fatally injured 
through eating them with the oats. It is difficult to separate 
the seeds from our cereals and they are thus frequently ground 
together with the grain, contaminating the flour, and making it 
unwholesome as a food. The plants of this group require 
further careful study as to their properties ; many have been 
suspected of being poisonous, but as yet experiments with the 
various plants have given negative results. 
Cucurbitacese. Prevailing qualities : purgative. 
IV. D .' — Bryonia dioica3diC(\Vi. (Common Bryony). Stem: 
climbing. Leaves: large, light green, rough, having undi- 
vided tendrils at the base. Flowers: in large white bunches. 
May to August. Place of growth: hedges and thickets, 
rare in the extreme western counties. Perennial. 
Qualities: The plant contains a glucoside, which is an 
acrid poison. Linnaeus reports that goats eat it, horses, cows, 
sheep, and swine refuse it. If animals have eaten portions 
of this plant they are seized by fits of purging, their stomach 
becomes swollen, and a great flow of saliva is observed. It is 
interesting to note that boiling destroys the poisonous action, 
and the young shoots of the bryony prepared like asparagus 
provide a good vegetable. 
Umbelliferse. Prevailing qualities : depressant. 
V. A. — Cicuta virosa L. (Water Hemlock). Stem: 3 ft. to 
4 ft. high, stout, round and hollow at the base. Leaves : on 
long stalks, tripartite ; leaflets linear. Flowers: in stalked 
white umbels. July and August. Place of growth: 
ponds and ditches. Perennial. 
Qualities : This plant possesses poisonous principles of 
the same energy as the true hemlock {Conivm maculatwn L.). 
The symptoms noticed were swelling of the stomach, succeeded 
by insensibility, followed by convulsions and death, which in 
some cases occurred within one hour after eating the plant. 
Linnaeus 'reports that this jilant caused considerable yearly loss 
of horned cattle, growing on a moist meadow in Sweden. He 
states that when fully grown this plant has a very disagreeable 
odour, and is avoided by cattle, but when it is young and grows 
luxuriantly amongst other herbage, it only has a faint smell, 
thus it is not detected by the stock, though almost as dangerous 
in action as the older plants. Linnaeus therefore advised the 
farmers to turn their cattle into this meadow, only after the 
' Ihe figures and letters in front of the names refer to the plate and 
illustration. 
