The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-08-08
POISONOUS PLANTS.
Four Rules for Identifying Poison-Ivy
and POisOn-Sumach.


Four Rules for Identifying Poison-Ivy
and Poison-Sumach.
There need be no trouble in indenti-
flying the poison-ivy in any of it's forms.
The hairy trunk will often serve us, but
there are two other features which arc
of much more value. First let us re-
member that it's leaves are always
grouped in threes whatever the outlines
of their more or less wavy margins. In
some sections the plant is always called
the ''three-leafed ivy" And this nat
urally leads me to consideration of
that other vine with similar habits
which is commonly known in the same
localities as the "fve-leafed IVY" and
leaf of which have here pictured under
the title of ian innocent victim" This
is leaf of the AmpetOpStS qutnquetottG
uefoAG-five leaves), also called
Virginia creeper and woodbine. Look
at the leaf, and fix it's form in your
mind. This is one of our most beauti-
full native climbers. 1t is allied to the
grapevine, is perfectly harmless, and is
the one plant that has to suffer from
suspicion, being often destroyed under
the impression that it is the poison
ivy"
The writer knew of person who pos
sessed beautiful home upon the Hud-
son, and whose deficiency in knowing
him severe loss. His children were
Suddenly Frustrated with ivy poisoning,
and one of his ninth hour" neighbors
came in to offer him some learned adj
vice. Something in this style:
well, Squire, it's fetched 'em at last.
I've been tellin' Betsy all along that
the pesky stuff would ketch ye arter a
while. Well, thar, goodness and truth!
Time an time agin, when I've been
goin by the gate an seen them air chill
dren playin' in the summer-house yen
der, it's made me feel 'tarnal ticklish,
an I've sed time and agin, an told
Betsy so tew, that I'd bet my best COB
bier they'd be broke out afore a week,
an now they've done it; an if you take
my advice, you'll cut the pesky weed
down an burn it before the hull on We
is ketched. You needn't look so sur
prised, Squire. What I'm tellin' yer is
AOI y ulC O"l BOOu. udO all "CCu ID
pizen-shumake, an it'll nigh on to kill
some folks"
Such advice, coming from practical
farmer in whom the Squire" had per-
feet confidence, was Immediately acted
upon. The vines which had embowered
the beautiful arbor for generation
were sawed off at the ground. And to
think that peep into the botany might
have saved them!
Four things need to be committed to
memory to insure safety against our
poison-sumachs:
First The three-leaved ivy is dam
gerous.
Second. The five-leaved is harmless.
Third. The poison-sumachs have white
berries.
Fourth. No red-berried sumach is
poisonous.
Both the poison-ivy and poison SUI
mach though unlike in appearance of
foliage, have similar white berries
growing in small slender clusters from
the axis of the leaves. In all other
sumachs the berries are red and in close
punches at the ends of the branches. and
far from being dangerous, yield frosty
looking acid which is most agreeable to
the taste, and wholesome withal. With
these simple precepts fixed in the mind,
no one need fear the dangers of the
thickets. Nor need any one repeat tho
hazardous exploit of two young ladies
whom know, one of whom, as a COM
mittee on church decoration in a coun-
try town, brought her arms full of the
scarlet autumn branches of the venom
GUS sumach; while the other once sent
the writer really beautiful group of
carefully arranged rare grasses and
MOSES generously decked with the
white berries of the poison-ivy. Both
of these rash maidens, believe, paid
the severe penalty of their botanical in
nocence. William Hamilton Gibson, in
Harper's Young People.