240  Poisonous  Species  of  Astragalus.      { Am^1f^ra" 
The  order  of  leguminosae,  which  contains  a  very  large  number  of 
plants,  indigenous  to  all  parts  of  the  world, yields  many  edible  and  other 
useful  products  ;  but  that  some  leguminous  plants,  like  Citysus  laburnum, 
Lin.,  Tephrosia  toxharii,  Pers.,  Piscidia  erythrind,  Jacq  ,  and  others, 
possess  more  or  less  poisonous  properties  has  been  known  for  a  long 
time.  More  recently  Pbysostigma  venenosum,  Balf.,  Sophora  speciosa, 
Benth.,  and  others,  have  been  added  to  the  list.  But  the  genus 
Astragalus,  although  a  very  extensive  one,  and  comprising  several 
hundred  species,  appears  to  have  attracted  very  little  attention  for 
medicinal  use.  The  product  of  the  shrubby  astragali  of  the  Levant, 
gum  tragacanth,  is  universally  known  and  employed.  Astr.  glycyphyllos , 
Lin.,  of  Europe  and  Northern  Asia,  the  leaves  of  which  have  a  rather 
unpleasant  sweet  taste,  formerly  enjoyed  some  reputation  as  a  diuretic, 
Ast.  exscapus,  Lin.,  a  native  of  Central  Europe,  has  a  mucilaginous, 
mildly  astringent  and  somewhat  bitter  root,  which  was  formerly 
employed  in  syphilitic  complaints.  The  seeds  of  Ast.  baeticus,  Lin.,, 
which  is  found  in  Southern  and  Middle  Europe,  have  been  to  some 
extent  used  as  a  substitute  for  coffee  ;  they  were  examined  by  Tromms- 
dorff  (1824)  and  the  root  of  the  preceding  species  by  Fleurot  (1833)}. 
but  in  both  cases  only  the  common  constituents  of  vegetables  were 
found. 
There  are  about  12  species  of  Astragalus  found  in  the  United  States 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  100  or  more  westward  to  the  Pacific  coast,. 
The  eastern  species  are  popularly  known  as  milkvetch,  and  as  far  as  I 
could  ascertain  are  nowhere  employed  for  medicinal  or  domestic  purposes;, 
and  since  not  a  single  species  is  enumerated  in  the  interesting  paper  by 
Dr.  E.  Palmer  ("Am  Jour.  Phar.,"  1878,  p.  539)  as  being  used  by  the 
Indians,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  no  use  has  been  found  for  the  western 
astragali.  From  the  accounts  given  above,  however,  it  would  seem 
that  they  deserve  attention,  at  least  so  far  as  very  active  and  even 
deleterious  effects  have  been  noticed  from  a  few  species  of  a  large  genus, 
which  seems  to  produce  mostly  plants  of  little  or  no  importance  in  a 
medicinal  point  of  view. 
