The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-12-09

tie Is known about them
Most people in the East have ex-
perfenced, or seen in others, the dread
full effects of the poison ivy; while on
the other hand, in the West, plants
acting in another way-as the larkspur,
or poison weed; the loco, or carry weed
are very well known, and the damage
done by them is exceedingly serious.
SO great is the harm done by loco in
some portions of the West, that be-
tween 1881 and 1885 the State of Colo
RADIO paid out no less than 100000
in bounties in the hope of eXterminat-
ing the plant. 1t is hardly necessary
to say that these efforts were ineffec-
tual.
Over much of the Middle States and
of Southern New England the poison
ivy grows in enormous abundance;
fences stone walls, hedgerows and tall
trees are covered by it, with beautiful
effect to the eye, but with dire re-
suits to the person going too near the
plant, provided he or she is sensitive
to the poison. On the other hand, do
nestle animals-and no doubt wild
ones as well-appear to be unaffected
by the poison. Cows, horses, mules
and goats eat the leaves readily, and
apparently without ill-effect. They
push their way through thickets of the
vine, and seem never to suffer from it,
The human subject is variously sus-
ceptible to the ivy poison. Some indi-
viduals can handle the plant without
danger; others cannot go near it with
out great subsequent distress. Some
people will be very badly poisoned by
passing to the leeward of a fire in
which the stems of the ivy are burn
ing.
There is a great variety of plants
which poison animals and people who
eat them, but most of them are not
especially attractive, and are eaten
chiefly in curiosity and ignorance by
little children. Deaths from eating
jimson weed occur very frequently
in and near large cities, and it is but
few weeks since several cases of
the kind were reported in a suburb
of New York.
There are two mushroom-llke toad
stools or fungus which are violently
poisonous. These belong to the genus
Amanita, and are called fiy-killer, fly
fungus, and poison fungus. The first
one is perhaps the best known of all
the poisonous fungi, and has been used
in Europe as a fly poison for hundreds
of years. While bearing a close re-
Semblance to the common mushroom,
it may be distinguished from it by
having white instead of purple gills,
by the fact that it grows in forests
where the edible mushroom does not
grow. The so-called death-cup or bull
bous Amanita, is even more poisonous
than the fiy-killer, and should always
be avoided, for cases have been known
where handling it has caused trouble.
This species also has white gills and
grows in woods, though sometimes
getting out on to the lawns. Both
these fungi have a collar about the
stem just below the head.
False hellebore, known also as In
dian poke, puppet root, earth gall, crow
poison, devils bite, wolfsbane and bug
bane are also poisonous if eaten. 1t
is stout perennial plant, from two
to seven feet high, bearing large pleat-
ed, stemless leaves, and a terminal
cluster Of greneish or yellowish flow
ers, blooming in May to July. Human
beings have been poisoned by eating
4bo
leaves; but certain Illuminating animals,
as sheep and elk, appear not to suffer
inconvenience from eating it.
The pokeweed is well known to every
American country boy, and most of
them have made red ink from its ber-
ries, which are also greedily eaten in
autumn by many birds. The young
shoots of this plant are commonly
eaten as green's, but these should be
well boiled, and the water should be
changed once before the stems are
eaten. Poisoning has occurred from
eating the root and the fruit; but, on
the other hand, as has been already
said, the birds eat the berries with
impunity.
Several species of larkspur are re-
garded by stock growers as destruc-
tive to cattle. They are among the
first plants to show their green leaves
above the soil in spring, and are there
fore eagerly sought for by cattle, often
with fatal results. 1t is quite possible
that animals accustom themselves to
this plant, and that if eaten in small
quantities in conjunction with other
plants, the percentage Of deaths re-
Snlting is very small.