Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-15
POISON wy Anp suMAon.
Useful information Concerning the Dan
gers That Lurk in Thickets.

Useful Information Concerning the Dan
gers That Lurk in Thickets.
Tore need be no trouble in identifying
the poison ivy in any of its forms. The
hairy trunk will often serve us. but there
arc two other features which are of much
more value. First let us remember that
its leaves are always grouped in threes
whAtaveT the outlines of their mere or less
waIs aia~gins. In some sections the plant
is always called the three feavcd ivy"
And this naturally leads me to a consider
alton of that other vine with similar hab
its which is commonly known in the same
localities as the five leayed ivy" This Is
leaf of the AmpelOpsis quinquefolia
(quinquefOlia-five leaves, also called Vir
ginia creepcr and wOodbine. Look at the
leaf and fix its for-l in your mind. This
Is one Of our most beautiful native climb
ers 1t is allied to the grapevine, is per-
fectly 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 n person who pos
sessed a beautiful home upon the Hudson,
and whose deficiency in knowing Of this
one little page of botany cost him severe
loss. His children were suddenly pros
trated with ivy poisoning, and one of his
ninth hour" neighbors came in TO offer
him some learned advice. Something in
this style:
well, squire, it's fetched em at last
I've been telin' Betsy all along that the
pesky stuff would ketch we AFTER while.
Well, thar, goodness and truthl Time and
time agin', when I've been goin' by the
gate an seen them air children playin' in
the summer house yender, it's made me
feel 'tarnal tiCllish, an I've sed time and
agin, an tole Betsy so tew that I'd bet
my best gobbler they'd be broke out ufore
week, am now they've done it; an If you
take my advice you'll cut the pesky weed
down and burn it afore the hull on We il
ketched. That air weed is pizen shumake
an it'll nigh on to kill some foiks."
Such advice, coming from a practical
farmer i'm whom the esquire" had perfect
confidence, was Immediately acted upon.
The vines which had empowered the beau.
tiful arbor for generation were sawed off
at the ground. And to think that peep
into the botany might have saved themI
Four things need to be committed to
memory to insure safety against our poison
sumachs:
Frst-The three leaved ivy is dangerous.
Second-The five leayed is harmless.
Third-The poison sumachs have white
berries.
Fourth--No red bermed sumach is poi
sonous
Both the poison ivy and the poison su.
mach, though unlike in appearance of foil
age have similar white berries growing in
small, slender clusters from the axis of
the leaves. In all other sumachs the l,r
ries are red and in close punches at the ends
of the branches, and far from being dan.
gerous, yield frosty looking acid which
is most agreeable to the taste and whole
some withal With these simple precepts
fixed in the mind no one need fear the
dangers of the thickets. Nor need any
one repeat the hazardous exploit of two
young ladies whom know, one of whom
as a committee on church decoration in
country town brought her arms fun of the
scarlet autumn branches of the venomous
sumach; while the other once sent the
writer n really beautiful group Of carefully
arranged rare grasses and MOSES gener-
ously decked with the white berries of the
poison ivy. Both of these rash maidens
believe paid the severe penalty of their
botanical innocence. William HAMILTON
Gibson in Ilarper's Young People.