62 
PLANTS AND INSECTS 
POISONOUS PLANTS 
HERE are no beautiful poisonous flowers native to this country. 
* There are only three, plants that are really poisonous to the touch. 
They all belong to the Rhus family, and resemble one another in their 
uninteresting clusters of dull greenish-gray berries. 
Two of them, poison-ivy and poison-sumac, are found in the eastern 
part of the country, and poison-oak grows on the Pacific Coast. 
Poison-ivy is a common vine that climbs over rocks and that in 
some shady places covers the ground with luxuriant leaves. Occas¬ 
ionally, in fertile spots, it will raise branches like shrubs up over the 
rocky supports; elsewhere it clings to the bark of trees and climbs 
high. 
Its flowers and berries are always in dull clusters, but its leaves 
may become brilliant red and brown in the autumn sun. Do not pick 
leaves that grow in threes on a vine, but do not be afraid to gather the 
leaves of the woodbine, which grow in clusters of five. 
It is difficult to distinguish poison-sumac from other sumacs. Dg 
not call it dogwood; it does not look like dogwood. True dogwoods 
have beautiful flowers, and ape not poisonous. Poison-sumac grows 
like a small, branching tree; it is the cleanest and smoothest in leaf 
and branch of all the sumacs. The leaflets are long and pointed, five 
to eleven on one petiole. If you see little drooping clusters of green¬ 
ish-white flowers, or later the greenish little berries, do not touch 
anything on that shrub or tree. 
Poison-oak does not look like any oak. It has clusters of three 
almost round leaves, which grow on a vine like poison-ivy, or more 
often on a low shrub. If you see the clusters of white flowers, or 
berries, do not touch the plant. 
There are many plants with sap that is more or less poisonous if 
it reaches a cut. Do not let a plant drip on a wound. There are many 
plants with thorns and stings that produce painful irritation if they 
scratch through the skin. Pick their flowers carefully. 
Many beautiful flowers have sap that is more or less poisonous 
if swallowed. Do not ever hold flowers in your mouth. Do not give 
flowers to babies, for they are sure to put them into their mouths, and 
some of our familiar flowers have poison enough to affect a baby’s 
health. 
