CICUTA AS A POISONOUS PLANT. 
tinct as shown in the illustration, but they are alwa^'s preswit, a^id it 
is by them that the plant is readily distinguished from most pianJ:s 
growing in similar situations. Botanists recognize several species, 
but they are very closely related and all have the chambered root- 
stock. So far as 
known, all the spe- 
cies are poisonous. 
THE POISONING OF 
HUMAN BEINGS. 
The curiosity of 
children, which often 
leads them to eat 
strange roots, is the 
cause of most of the 
cases of poisoning of 
human beings. Oc- 
casionally older peo- 
ple are affected with 
the same curiosity, 
with similar results. 
Cases of poisoning 
are more frequent in 
the spring, parti}' 
because the roots are 
more likely to be no- 
ticed at that time 
and partly because 
they seem to be more 
poisonous then than 
later in the season. 
Every year a consid- 
erable number of 
instances of poison- 
Fl(i. 1.— Leaves and flowers of Cicuta vagans {wnier hemiovk). u\cr are reOOrted tO 
the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Ignited States Department of 
Agriculture, but it is probable that only a small proportion of the 
actual number is made public. Many of these cases recover, but 
unfortunately the proportion of fatalities is large. 
THE POISONING OF LIVE STOCK. 
In the aggregate the loss of domestic animals fromCicuta poisoning 
is not large, but individual owners may lose rather heavily. Occa- 
sionally the stock eat roots that have been washed out by the high 
water in small streams. Farmers in their plowing sometimes bring 
