SOME VEGETABLE POISONS. 
W E so often hear, especially during the summer 
months, of cases of poisoning caused by ignorance 
of the toxic qualities of plants, that one is surprised to 
notice how little is popularly known on the subject, since 
harmless plants are often regarded with suspicion, while 
noxious ones are suffered to go free. An example of 
such ignorance, or carelessness, was recently displayed in 
the pages of a prominent English horticultural paper, 
wherein a correspondent recommended our common poi¬ 
son-ivy ( Rhus toxicodendron) as a satisfactory covering 
for unsightly buildings or fences. Now, there are doubt¬ 
less many who are not injured by touching this plant, but 
in most cases such contact results in a painful and disfig¬ 
uring eruption, more or less accompanied by nausea, and 
I have known the same cause to produce a dangerous 
state of chronic blood-poisoning. So it could scarcely be 
considered a desirable acquisition to the garden. In a re¬ 
cent article we enumerated the points of difference be¬ 
tween this plant and the Virginia creeper, with which it is 
often confounded. We infer that the poison-ivy is the 
vine alluded to in Moore’s poem of the “ Dismal Swamp,” 
where he says: 
“ He lay where the deadly vine doth weep 
Its venomous tear, and nightly steep 
The flesh with blistering dew ! ” 
This, however, is a poetic exaggeration, like the won¬ 
derful accounts we have all read of the deadly upas 
tree. This tree, botanically Antiaris toxicaria, is fabled 
to diffuse around it a poisonous atmosphere, fatal to ani¬ 
mals which come within range of its influence. Is it not 
in one of ,the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor where we 
read of the Javanese Valley of Death, strewn with the 
bones of adventurous men and animals who have been 
slain by the fatal upas trees growing around ? But, in 
point of fact, it is no more deadly than our poison- 
ivy. I recollect seeing it years ago in one of the exotic 
houses at Chatsworth, the Duke of Devonshire’s country 
seat in Derbyshire, where it was certainly approached 
with impunity. The sap or extract, known in Java as 
antschar , antjar or oupas , is, however, deadly when ad¬ 
ministered internally. Another tree bearing much the 
same reputation as the upas is the “ manchineel ” (. Hip- 
p 07 nane mancinella), a native of the West Indies. It 
abounds with a milky-white juice, highly acrid and 
poisonous; if a single drop falls upon the skin it f pro- 
duces a burning sensation, followed by a blister. In its 
native place the belief prevails that sleeping under its 
branches will cause death, but this is proved a fallacy. 
The wood is beautifully variegated with brown and 
white, and is used for fine woodwork, as it loses its 
poisonous properties in drying. In felling the trees a fire 
is first kindled about the trunk, so far solidifying the sap 
as to prevent it from flowing freely. On the coast of 
Martinique whole woods have been burned to rid the 
country of this tree. The order Euphorbiacece , to which 
this tree belongs, contains a great number of species, all 
yielding a milky juice, and all more or less poisonous. 
Several varieties are used in medicine. Rafinesque 
selected our native species, Euphorbia corollata , as a 
prominent representative in the “ Medical Flora of the 
United States.” But Nuttall says: “The economy of 
the genus Euphorbia appears to be very limited. In the 
deserts of Africa they only tend, as it were, to augment 
the surrounding scenes of desolation ; leafless, bitter, 
thorny and poisonous, they seem to deny food to every 
animated being. Among the European and American 
species there are some which have been used medici¬ 
nally, but they are, at best, dangerous and needless 
remedies.” The native species, mentioned above, is an 
extremely pretty plant, very common in Southern New 
Jersey, bearing a panicle of small white flowers, or, 
rather, small white bracts surrounding the true flowers 
—in size and' shape it resembles a forget-me-not. There 
has been an attempt to introduce it as a florist’s flower, 
but its milky juice makes it disagreeable to handle when 
cut, though it is charming in the garden. It possesses 
considerable medicinal virtue, notwithstanding Nuttall’s 
opinion to the contrary ; during the civil war it was suc¬ 
cessfully used in the Southern Confederacy as a substi¬ 
tute for ipecacuanha, being fully as active and much 
more manageable and safe in its use. 
A similar form of growth to our Euphorbia —that is, 
showy bracts surrounding inconspicuous flowers—is ex¬ 
hibited by a Mexican member of the order, Poinsettia 
pulcherrima. It is a shrubby plant, growing from two 
to six feet high, bearing on the ends of the branches clus¬ 
ters of bright cardinal-red bracts, a foot or more across; 
in the middle of the bracts are the small green-and-yellow 
flowers. These flowering bracts are familiar in the florists’' 
windows during the winter, being much used for decora¬ 
tive purposes. They must be carefully handled, however; 
if the milky juice finds its way into any cut or abrasion of 
the skin the result may be serious. An African Euphor¬ 
bia is used by some of the savages for the purpose of 
poisoning their arrows, and it also enters into the incanta¬ 
tions of the Ashantee priests or wizards. Most of the 
African species form corpulent, branching trunks, having 
an effect similar to the giant cacti of the Southwest. It 
seems rather a problem whence they obtain the moisture 
contained in their milky sap in these arid, tropic plains; 
certainly their appearance justifies their name, which, 
literally translated, means well-fed. It is a noticeable 
fact with many vegetable poisons, that the noxious qual¬ 
ity is entirely destroyed by heat. A familiar example of 
this is tapioca, the product of the cassava plant ( Janipha 
Manihot). It is a woody plant, growing to a height of 
five or six feet, native of Brazil. It belongs to a highly 
poisonous family, and is itself the most virulent of the 
species, yet, when rightly prepared, it forms a highly pal¬ 
atable and nutritious food. The poisonous property is 
seen to lie only in the sap, since the South American In¬ 
dians, by means of a primitive press, separate this juice. 
