Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-11-05
"POISON.IYY."
HOW to Distinguish the PIant-Some
of Its Characteristics - Dangers of
PIucking 1t.


HOW to Distinguish the P1ant-Some
PIucking 1t.
Harper's Bazaar.
As the season of the year dra rs near
in which the lovers of autumn leaves
are adding their variously tinted
store, and the flower and leaf paint
ers are carrying home branches for
their easels, it seems i'm portant that
they should be made acquainted with
the appearance of those shrubs that
are poisonous to the touch, two va
rieties OF which there are in these lat :
itudes forbidden to the gatherers Of
simples, commonly known as the poi
son ivy and the poison sumac, Let
people exclaim as they please at the
brilliant coloring and graceful sprays
Of these shrubs, but let them pluck
the same, and, unless they are OF the
fortunate very few, they will only
give themselves days and weeks Of
dire distress and deformity.
There is 20 trouble in making the &C
quaintance of either of these growths,
as to the quick or the trained eye they
are very plainly marked. The poison
ivy is SO called-aIthougn it is really
of the same family as the sur1ac, the
Rhus-may be known by its three
Iargish leaves, long and oval, and
tapering to point with smooth edges,
the ribs quite distinct, and the surface
shining. The climbing variety is some
times mistaken for ampelopsis Com
monty called woodbine), but the latter
has tive leaves instead of three, and,
really, to the careful observer, bears
no resemblance. It looks much like
the wild raspberry leaf cluster, but
even there there are important points
of difference to be found specifically,
in the rough leaf and small briers of
the stem. The low variety Of poison
ivy has leaves little longer and wider
than those of the climber, and grows
anywhere, while the climber loves
damp places, and some support that il
can drape in gold and crimson beauty.
There are few handsomer leaves than
those of the p0ison-ivy, and it is 10
wonder that the wanderers Of Wild
wood ways are struck with it's rich
shades of color, the deep maroon, the
rich carmine, the brilliant orange, all
blending exquisitely with the still
vivid green; but if they venture to
pluck it, swollen and clustered, aching
and itching, they will know no com,
forGfor fortnight; andsthere are some
who only can not pluck il, but can
not go near it, or breathe the air that
has been contaminated with it. It is
sometimes enormously called poisoned
~ Il k>1,E L. 4
an entirely different family. The
only poisonous dogwoo& Known grows
in Jamaica and our own extreme
South; and that is not hurtful to the
touch, but its bark yields a powerful
narcotic and anodyne juice. Botan,
ically speaking, the poison ivy is the
Rhus toxicodendron. Its cousin, the
Rhus venenata, or poison sumac,
| growing near wet places, is of equally
virulent quality and splendid appears
ance. This is to be distinguished
from the innocent sumac>, in the
first place, by its leaves, which at most
have only SIX pairs of opposing leaf
lets, while The innocent ones have
sometimes twenty, and always eight.
These leaflets, again, have smooth
edges, while the innocent kinds have
serrated edges. As at the time when
people are likely to gather It the
greenish white flowers, growing ia
loose slender panicles and not closely
clustered in a spike, as the innocent
kind grow, will have turned to fruit,
they would be no guide; but the fruit
of the valuable sumac is deep red in
| tint, and grows IN a compact spike,
while the fruit of the noxious kind is
a greenish white or gray, and hangs
in small scattered clusters of berries.
It has milky juice, which dries to a
black varnish, although we would
not advise any to experiment with
it to see; it has a relative in the
east which yields the Japanese
lacquer, 1t has other relatives of
note, for, base as it is itself, it belongs
to the same family as the tropical
cashew or maigo, and as the velvet
stag-horn sumac, which sometimes
reaches a height of 80 feet, where II
losses its boughs like palm; and its
close connection in this country is the
fragrant killiknick, with which the
Indians used to perfume their tobacco.
The color of the poison sumac in the
fall is flaming scarlet, indescribably
luminous; bat it affords case where
one should Glove a wild rose and leave
it on the stem" Let poison sumac
stay to illuminate the. landscape; for
to most who touch it, and to those
who breath its atmosphere, its effect is
precisely the same as that Of the
| poison>ivy.
With some people the suffering OF
the swelling and blistering occasioaed
by these plants Is allayed by cooling
ointments, by thick plasters of cold
dry -four, by plantain leaves with
others, by constantly changed appli-
cants of nearly scalding hot water
while yet others get no relief at al
except that brought by the skilled
physician. A few have even to en-
dure the return of the biisters, to a
more or less degree, with the return OF
the season in which they received the
venom in their system.
It II IL j