Poisonous Woodland Herbs 
b y annie: oakes huntington 
I N the rich, cold forests of the North a most 
charming little, bulbous herb is found, under 
tbe shade of the trees where the ground is 
damp, and the moss is thick and green. This is 
the wood sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella, a plant which 
grows so close to the earth that the stems frequently 
run under the ground, and its foliage forms a light 
carpet. It has small flowers which are delicate and 
pretty, with five white petals veined with rose-pink, 
and the leaves are an attractive shade of pale green, 
covered with scattered brownish hairs, and divided 
into three clover-like leaflets. They have a strange 
habit of sleeping at night 
which has attracted much 
comment and interest. 
During the day the leaflets 
are spread out flat to the 
light, but as evening comes 
on each leaflet gradually 
droops downwards, and 
closes in, until the under¬ 
sides almost touch the foot¬ 
stalk. The leaves remain 
in this position through the 
night, and when the sun 
rises in the morning, they 
slowly open, and spread out 
flat again. Darwin made 
many experiments in what 
he called the “ nyctitropism 
of leaves,” and gave as the 
most probable reason for 
the phenomena the fact 
that by this protection the 
upper surfaces are kept from being chilled at night 
by radiation. Linnaeus, the famous Swedish botan¬ 
ist, the “Father of Botany,” as he has been called, 
was tbe first to devote an essay to this curious sleep 
of plants, and ever since then a great deal has been 
written on the subject. 
The wood sorrel is found from Nova Scotia to the 
mountains of North Carolina in the Eastern States, 
and also in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The 
Italians call the plant Alleluia, probably in reference 
to the tri-foliate leaves, which stand as a mystic 
symbol of the Trinity, and it is in connection with 
its flower-portraits in the sacred pictures of the 
Italian masters, that Ruskin says: “Fra Angelico’s 
use of the Oxalis Acetosella is as faithful in represen¬ 
tation as touching in feeling. The triple leaf of this 
plant, and white flower, stained purple, probably 
gave it strange typical interest among tbe Christian 
painters. Angelico, in using its leaves mixed with 
daisies in the foreground of his Crucifixion, was 
perhaps thinking of its peculiar power of quenching 
thirst. ” 
1 he wood sorrel has an agreeable sour taste due to 
the poisonous binoxalate of potash which the plant 
contains. Oxalic acid, a pungent, bitter, poisonous, 
acidulous salt, is prepared from tbe plant, and is sold 
in the shops as salt of sorrel, used for removing iron 
rust and ink stains from linen. 
As the season advances and the woods take on the 
peculiar hushed stillness of midsummer, the tall, 
white racemes of the black cohosh, Cimicifuga race- 
mosa, make their appear¬ 
ance. The plant is a tall, 
erect perennial herb, from 
three to six feet high, with 
large leaves divided into 
smooth thick leaflets,— the 
leaflets themselves often 
again divided into little 
leaves,—and with soft, 
feathery spikes of white 
flowers growing erect from 
the lateral branches. The 
fruit is an egg-shaped cap¬ 
sule containing numerous 
flat seeds. The root is hit¬ 
ter and poisonous, and at 
one time was used as a 
household remedy for rheu¬ 
matism and other diseases. 
If it is taken in large doses 
it produces vertigo, nausea, 
and a lessening of the action 
of the pulse. Closely allied to the black cohosh the 
white baneberry, Aetcra alba , is another herb found 
in the woods, with poisonous underground parts. 
It has feathery white flowers something like those 
of the black cohosh; but unlike the tall, wand-like, 
elongated racemes of that species, those of the bane- 
berry are short and small. The leaves are twice or 
thrice-compound, and the erect clusters of fruit in¬ 
variably draw attention by their oval, porcelain- 
white berries, marked with a round, dark spot. The 
berries have been likened to the eyes which children 
gouge from the heads of their china dolls, and the 
analogy is perfect. Both the white baneberry, and 
the red baneberry, Actcea rubra , a species with larger 
flower clusters, and red berries,—have roots which 
contain poison, and which act on the human system 
when taken internally as a violent purgative. 
The Culver’s root, Le ptandra Virgiruca , resembles 
(Continued on page 5, Advertising Section.) 
THE BERRIES OF THE WHITE BANEBERRY 
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