60 Injurious Fodder and Poisonous Plants. 
ones and it is not unlikely that this is the cause of many of 
the poisoning cases. Other poisonous plants are eaten by 
cattle, seemingly without any objection. It is difficult to 
explain this, but in many cases the hunger of the animals must 
account for it. When the grasses of the meadows is eaten 
down and when too many animals graze upon a field, it is 
only natural that they devour greedily every green leaf they 
find and in this way many cases of poisoning explain them- 
selves. 
Intelligent and observing farmers have made the statement 
that, though animals have had plenty to eat they will playfully 
nibble any plant, tree, or shrub, which in some way or other 
takes their fancy. It has often been observed that cattle seek 
protection from the sun’s rays on hot days under trees, in open 
woods, or near hedges, which are all places favoured by many 
of these poisonous plants. On the other hand, when drinking 
in small streams or ditches, the animals come into close contact 
with the poisonous plants which frequent wet places. Farmers 
often complain that the cases of plant poisoning happen to their 
best or to young animals. The former animals evidently 
enjoy the best appetite and therefore greedily consume large 
quantities of herbage ; the latter fall victims to their ignorance 
of the poisonous herbs and their youthful want of moderation. 
Thus it is well known that plants which are really not poisonous 
have caused fatal injury and death to young stock. One of the 
commonest examples of this is chickweed (Stellaria media L.). 
This plant grows abundantly everywhere ; it keeps in green 
leaf till late in the year, and lambs that eat it to excess so as to 
fill their stomachs have succumbed under symptoms of stoppage 
in the digestive organs. On examination of the stomach of 
animals killed by eating this weed it was found in large 
masses in the stomach and had not been digested. Whether 
death is due to overloading the stomach, or to the gaseous fer- 
mentation of the green vegetable matter, or whether the plants 
possess poisonous principles when eaten in large quantities is 
difficult to say. Chickweed belongs to a natural order of 
plants, some genera of which yield an undoubtedly poisonous 
substance known as saponin. This poison is present in many 
plants of this order, but in quantities too small to give rise to 
suspicion. Similar in action are Linum usifafissiumm L. 
(Common Flax), and Linum catharticum L. (Purging Flax). 
They are known to form large fibrous balls in the (esophagus 
and stomach of the animals. The latter species in addition 
possesses a siTbstance of the nature of a narcotic poison, and 
produces purging also. Another plant with purely mechanical 
properties is crimson clover {Trifolium incarnatum L.) ; it 
has been found that there is a danger in the use of the 
