DEATH LURKING IN FLOWERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20870, 9 November 1929, Page 7

DEATH LURKING IN FLOWERS

TWO HUNDRED POISONOUS ENGLISH PLANTS.

"There are 200 varieties of English plants which contain poison.” A London County Council education official made this statement to a newspaper representative when his attention was called to the case of a Blyth (Northumberland) girl, aged four, who died through eating the leaves and flowers of the antirrhinum. He added that the London County Council teachers warned their pupils before they left for their holidays against eating, during their rambles in parks or the countryside, any berry or flower' which they might think “ looks nice.” “Is is not generally known,” he said, “ that even the seeds from the common privet contain poison, and there is also grave danger in eating the yew berry, which is plentiful just now,” The curator of the Royal Botanical Gardena said that he had not previously heard of a case of death through eating antirrhinum leaves or flowers, “It is well known, of course,” he said, " that some poisons are not active until another poison is taken, and then death takes place. “ Many people, while roaming through the parks or lanes, will pick a flower or a berry and idly chew it, in some cases with fatal results. We all know about the deadly ‘ nightshade,* but not many are aware that the common foxglove is poisonous. There is also the monkshood, so named because of its shape, while among the berries one of the most deadly is that from the yew tree, which resembles the ordinary pea pod. Many well-known bulbs are poisonous, including the narcissus and the jonquil.” J