164 Annual Report for 1905 of the Consulting Botanist. 
A farmer found his drill failing to deliver his seed. On 
examining the matted mass which he forwarded, it was found 
that the seeds of one of the grasses had germinated, throwing 
out a stem an inch or so long, and having a corresponding 
root growth. The dead plantlet had matted together in the 
machine. 
The names, properties, and treatment of fifty-two plants 
were supplied to members. The majority of the plants were 
weeds of cultivation, for the most part described and figured in 
previous Reports, and the remainder were plants so rarely met 
with in agriculture that they need not be specially referred 
to here. 
The greed.y consumption of the early growing chickweed 
has again been the cause of death to lambs, not because the 
chickweed is poisonous, but because of the constipation it 
produces. 
Cases of cow-poisoning in Warwickshire arose from eating 
bitter sweet ( Solanum Dulcamara Linn.) and meadow saffron 
( Colchicum autumnale Linn.). The poisonous properties 
of bitter sweet are well known. It is not an uncommon 
plant in hedges and thickets, requiring support for its growth. 
The purple flowers are in structure like those of the potato, and 
the berries are red and ovate in shape. It is a perennial plant 
with a woody stem in the older part, and wdien supported 
grows to a height of twelve or fourteen feet. It should not 
be allowed to grow where stock are being fed, and must be 
rooted out if it is to be destroyed. The meadow saffron is 
more rare, but in some places too abundant. In all its parts 
it is poisonous, and it is not an infrequent cause of injury. 
It is an irritant poison, causing violent purging. This plant 
was the probable cause of the cows dropping their calves, 
the farmer having lost between eighty and ninety calves. The 
leaves appear in spring and wither before summer. The purple 
crocus-like flowers appear from August to October. The fruits 
formed underground are brought to the surface by the 
lengthening of the flower stalks in the following spring with 
the new leaves. The bulbs are deep in the ground, often as 
far as ten inches below the surface, and to get rid of them 
they must be dug up singly. The bulbs and seeds are used in 
medicine, and the bulbs are also in request for gardens. Stock 
must not be allowed to have access to this plant, but where it 
is abundant it might perhaps be cultivated with profit for the 
pharmaceutist or for the seedsman. It is so cultivated on the 
Continent, whence the supplies come to England. 
The stomach of a cow that was believed to have been 
poisoned was examined, and among its contents were found 
fragments of the two plants that have been named. In a visit 
