The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-07-08
A TREACHEROUS VINE.
The Poison Ivy and Its Deceptive
Appearance.


Desperate before the rashness of
youth, parents make short work of
arguments.
Some plants are poisonous; we can
not say this one is not; therefore, we
decide that it is poisonous, and charge
you all to neither touch nor handle it."
The brighter and prettier the plant the
more suspicious; as if its attractions
were only meant to beguile human
creatures to their ruin. The other day
l heard a reverend gentleman of books
telling his boys that the beautiful cat
brier is a deadly poison; and another
forbade the children to pick the pretty
bush honeysuckle everywhere in bios
som. Throughout years of "kidhood'
and subsection to dooryard supervision
these warnings carry weight, especially
with the girls. But the bold, bad boy
turned loose in summer Edens picks,
eats and does not surely die. Then all
the warnings are tossed over together
and hecontinues scotfer until one day.
after . Gebauch at the pond, he comes
home covered from toe to crown with
the virus of sumach, humble and sore.
1t would have been, after all, very
simple to teach him the truth in the be-
ginning, for we have, in fact, only two
native plants in the United States
which are poisonous to the touch and
but one of these is likely to be met
with. The one, however, is so omni
present that the terror of its name COW
ers half the lovely wild things that
ought to be our summer delight. 1t is
known as poison ivy, and it grows
everywhere, east and south. as well as
upon the Pacific slope, where it differs
little from the eastern species, Its hab-
itat is almost unlimited, but it prefers
sunny, sandy tracts, on mountains,
pasture or coast. 1t spreads by the
roadside. pcrches on fence posts, where
it has long reigned, Just beyond the
reach of the plow: climbs trees and,
waving from their boughs, threatens
the passing carriage; slides into the
orchard among the daisies, wraps itself
about the rocks Mercury vine is one
of its Old names. and well suited to its
slippery and insidious habits When
the Picnicker in romantic groves
stretches his tired limbs he finds ne is
lying upon a bed of ivy; he pulls him
self up a hill by tough shrub which he
finds, to his horror, is poison vine. If
he kindles his fire the brush may be full
of it, and it is particularly poisonous
when burning. In order to avoid such
a pest every child ought to be taught
to recognize it.
Rhus toXicodendron, Greek and
Celtic for red poison bush, is its name
in botany and in medicine 1t is an ac-
tive, acrid poison, leaving upon the skin
d crowd of minute watery blisters,
which may pass through several
stages of malignancy Some persons
are never poisoned by it; others are
sometimes poisoned, and yet others
cannot even pass it in certain stages of
its growth without being affected.
Often it results in long and painful i'll
ness; in rare cases it is fatal One
circumstance that increases liability
to danger from it is the variability of
its aspect; another is its resemblance
to the innocent Virginia creeper Both
are freely mingled on our roadsides.
Popularity they are both vines, but
that term belongs only to the creeper;
that is strictly vine, with all the grace
and suppIcness of the wild grape, to
which it is nearly related 1t has the
same long, tinger-like tendrils waving
seductively about to find some chance
support, and rosettes of palm-shaped
leaves, as if grape leaf had been cut
into five portions set with fine saw
teeth along the edge. On the CON
trary, Rhus has three leaflets, the end
one the largest and remote from the
others, all irregularly ana coarselv
toOthed. No two of the leaves are lust
alike. 1t has no tendrils, but climbs.
like English ivy, by little bristling
rootlets which sprout all along the
main stem, and eventually cover it like
moss. These rootlets penetrate costs
or bark Of trees, and cling there so
tightly that the plant cannot be torn
Off without dit1fculty.--N. y. Post