PLANTS POISONOUS TO STOCK. 
435 
to them. The plant widely known throughout nearly the whole 
Pacific slope area as death camas (Z. venenosus') is very similar 
to two other species found in the Northwest, and to another, 
commonly known as wild sego (Z. paniculatus ), which occurs 
in the great interior basin. As the two former have long been 
considered identical with death camas, and as they are all alike 
in the symptoms of poisoning which they produce, may well 
serve to illustrate all of them. Death camas differs from poison 
sego in its slender, instead of stout habit, its unbranched inflor¬ 
escence, and its long-clawed and obtuse pointed petals, those of 
poison sego being acute pointed and almost clawless. 
Habitat and Characteristics .—Death camas grows sparingly 
along creeks near the coast, and abundantly in the interior up 
to an altitude of nearly 9000 feet, its favorite habitat being 
shallow depressions in mountain pastures into which there is a 
slow seepage of ground water. Poison sego grows in low, damp, 
alkaline depressions throughout nearly the same area, but it is 
most abundant in the Great Salt Fake Basin, where it ascends 
to an altitude of about 4500 feet. The third species of poison 
camas (Z. elegans') is a much taller plant than either of the 
others. It is best known in the stock regions as alkali grass. 
It is most easily distinguished by its taller habit and the larger 
size of its various parts, especially of its flowers. It is a slender 
plant, which grows in moist alkaline places from northern Cali¬ 
fornia to Colorado, and northward to Alaska. It is never so 
abundant as either of the two preceding species. The leaves, 
and especially the bulbs, of these three species produce a foam 
when rubbed up with water, and they are generally more or less 
bitter, especially after long chewing. This taste is not, how¬ 
ever, always present. 
Poisonous Character of the Plant .—The earlier reports nat¬ 
urally refer almost exclusively to human cases of poison. It 
has been but a few years since any of the plants have attracted 
much attention as being fatal to stock. It has been stated, as 
noted above, that the bulbs are not poisonous to hogs, but they 
are very commonly considered fatal to other stock. Prof. F. H. 
