The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-27
OUR POISONOUS PLANTS
n SPECIAL YORK ON THEM ISSUED
BYTHE GOVERNMENT.

Many Persons and Animals Lose Their
Lives Every Year Through Eating
em-Dangerous Ones Cultivated In
Ordinary Flower Gardens What Some
of the Plants Are.
Government experts declare that the
number Of deaths caused by poisonous
plants in this country is increasing
steadily To scatter information re-
specting the character and appearance
OF these destructive members of the
vegetable kingdom, the Department of
Agriculture established about three
years ago new section of the division
of botany, and this section, at the head
of which is DR.. v. K. Chestnut, Is on the
point of issuing it's first publication.
During the last three years Mr.. Ches-
nut and his assistants have been en-
gagged in gathering all obtainable facts
regarding the poisonous plants of the
<lAAAbSNA RIeAtSSs 5OI etS iitebAAJ AeeSSS 60
possible subscription was made to va
rtous newspaper clipping bureaus, and
In this way notices were received of
nearly all cases Of plant poisoning re-
corded in various parts Of the United
States, The clippings, of course, men
toned the names of the persons pois-
oned, and facts were secured by writing
to them, or to the local postmasters, or
to the physicians who were called in to
\ treat the patients. In this way, in
nearly every case, DR.. Chestnut secured
specimen Of the plant responsible for
the poisoning, with record of the
symptoms, treatment and results.
Children are the greatest sufferers
from these vegetable foes.
The number Of children killed by such
plants In this country is large, though
definite statistics on the subject are
lacking Boys and girls have way of
eating anything they come across that
looks as If it might be edible. Water
heHlock kills many thoughtless persons
each year. There were two quadruple
cases In New Jersey in the spring of
1896. Children occasionally die from
eating the seed kernels or fruit of the
whiskey- cherry" tree, and now and
then they suffer serious consequences
from handling the ''caper spurge. .
They mistake the deadly water hem
lock for parsnips and radishes, and eat
the shoots Of the poisonous laurels for
Wintergreen. Their sufferings from
contact with poison oak and poison ivy,
though less serious in character, are
fr6quent.
It can hardly be expected that chill
/ dren shall have much practical knowl-
edge Of botany. Unfortunately, grown
people generally are equally ignorant.
h Up to date no comprehensive treatise
on the subject has been published
Hence the value of the new scientific
4 enterprise, which has for it's object not
only. the preservation of human lives,
but also the prevention of destruction
of life among farm animals. The annu-
al money loss due to the killing of cat
tie, sheep and horses by poisonous
plants is enormous. The famous loco
weed destroys immense numbers OF
horses, and, to rid itself of this pest
I the state Of Colorado paid out nearly
two hundred thousand dollars in boun-
ties from 1881 to 1885.
Many Of the most dangerous poison
plants are cultivated commonly in gar
u dens. The common lily Of the valley
30 much admired by flower lovers, is
one Of these. In this case the poison
Gus element. which has been success
fully separated, is called convallama-
rim 1t is very deadly crystalline COM
pound, possessing bitter taste, and is
found in all parts of the plant, includ-
ing the flowers. Occasionally children
n eat the flowers or leaves, with fatal
Y consequences. The poison acts as ar
epetic and purgative, eventually caus-
Y Ing death by paralysis of the heart
I. No antidote, properly 80 called, is
known, though the treatment adopted
Is the same as for digitalis poisoning.
The oleander, foxglove and narcissuf
are all poisonous. and commonly cult.
waited in gardens. 1t Is worth men
tioning that the common law of Eng.
land holds a person responsible fol
damage accruing from the possession
md cultivation of poisonous plants. In
\ one case jury rendered judgment In
favor Of plaintiff whose horse was
\ poisoned by eating branches of yew
which hung over fence from an ad-
jofning yard. A similar judgment fol
thirty-dve hundred dollars was rem
dered by New York court against the
directors Of cemetery in a case Of
poisoning due to poison ivy, which hac
been allowed to grow within the
grounds.
All poisonous plants are not equally
Injurious to all persons, nor to all form!
Of life. The most familiar illustration
OF this Is to be found in the action O,
poison ivy. 1t has no apparent effect
upon animals, and few of them, sucf
as the horse, mule and goat, eat it.
leaves with impunity. 1t acts upon thu
skin Of different human beings with va
rying intensity. Some people seem t.
be wholly immune to it's effects; Others
acquire immunity through repeated
poisnnings by it. The poison ivy, poi
son oak and poison sumac all belong tt
the sumac family. and the same kind o.
poison seems to characterize all three
No good evidence proves that it is NOR
intense in any of the three than in tn,
Others.
Poison ivy seeds are distributed
chiefly by crows and woodpeckers
which eat the berries containing them
1t il q climbing, or trailing shrub, bear
ing leaves in groups of three, and pro
ducing greenish flowers in May ant
June. Growing everywhere in opel
brush, In ravines, and on the borders