SOME DANGEROUS PLANTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2695, 8 November 1905, Page 75

SOME DANGEROUS PLANTS.

(E. A. Matthews in the Country Gentleman.)

! In the hot summer days, when the sun's rays boat fiercely down, and the earth itself exhales a heated, feverish, breath, we -must be on our guard. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty to enjoy the delights Mid wonders of Nature — the flowers of tbe field, the wild fruits and seeds.

Just at tbe edge of the orchard grows a clump of plants that attract the admiration of every passer-by. Towering up eight or ten feet, with Targe, shining, oval-pointed leaves and clusters of greenishwhite blossoms, it looks like an innoceno joy-giving plant among the other weeds. It "is the deadly phytolocoa, the pigeon berry, whose dark -purple seed pods are prized by the country ch'ifdren for making ink, and by their mothers for making pies. But to the little one who is charmed by their gay colours enough to eat them, for death is in the fairy flowers.

Another plant that is a common tempter is the lovely sumach of the genus Rims. We call it poison ivy, or poison oak, aHhough. it has no relation; to either ivy or oak. This dangerous plant is found in two forms, the vine and the bush. The climbing ivy is a- wood vine which runs over trees from trunk to top, often i© a. great height. The other variety is a, low-growing shrub, two or three feet in height, with compound leaf consisting of three leaflets, somewhat irregularly cub and toothed. The flowers are small and dainty, and after these come berries of a pale brown colour. But of all the plants, rone are more wicked under an innocent seeming. No one who has suffered from an attack of ivy poisoning can ever forget the pain, the annoying itching and smarting. It is 60 treacherous, so unexpected, j Coming home from, a pleasant walk through J field and forest, when each! hour brought fresh enjoyment, suddenly the victim begins to feel miserable, a quick flush of heat, a smarting and a burning uplike any other sickness. Then come swellings, and little blisters all over; hand or face- or any part of the body so unfortunate as to have touched the fatal plant. Nothing can be done to cure — nothing even to alleviate. The stricken one must grin and bear it — and listen to all his friends saying, "Only j a little ivy poisoning." Then there is a datura or Jamestown ] weed. This is a well-known annual, with beautiful pale blossoms shaped like a ! ruffled tube. It grows by the roadside, and in the barnyards of Kentucky and* Illinois, and all over the farms of the South. Tradition tells of some early colonists of Virginia who were poisoned by this plant ; hence its name from historic Jamestown.

The belladonna or deadly nightshade is another plant to be shunned by careless admirers. There is a special danger in its sweet, purple berries so alluring to children, and so fatal.

Among the commonest of our meadow and roadside flowers are the friendly buttercups, crowfoots, meadow rue, aconite, and othe"rs. Can it be possible that these, too, are filled with deadly venom, that those innocent faces hide cruel hearts? Almost all the Ranunculus family are totally depraved. The juice from their leaves and blossoms is acrid and corrosive, producing blisters when pressed upon the skjn. Most dreadful of all are the aconites — monk's hood, or wolf's bane, with their alkaloid aconite, the most fatal and powerful poison known to botany. The larkopur is another poison bloom ; yet what ''an seem more innocent and dainty as it {>)vav_3 in the afternoon sunshine? In^djjJc

corners of the wood, or where hazel patches grow, we find the classic hellebore, whose juice was poured intp' the ears of Hamlet's father by his brother as he lay "sleeping in the afternoon." it is a pretty plant, with shining green leaves and white flowers, and is sometimes called the " Christmas Rose."

Who has not rejoiced in the fragrant white blossoms of the May apple, when it comes in early spring, and later on enjoyed the juicy fruit, or seed pod ? But its leaves and roots are poison, and botanists call it the " deadly mandrake. ' From it is made a patent medicine and well-known remedy.

' A long list there is of these plant criminals, with 'faces of light and hearts of darkness — the popj>y, whose juice Drings sleep and his twin brother, death ; the Indian hemp ; the dog bane ; the oleander ; the lobelia ; the water parsnip ; the poison hemlock, a drop of whose' active principle, conium, will kill a cat or a rabbit as speedily it seems like magic. By its power the great soul of Socrates was set free from the body.

Many pretty grasses are dangerous to the touch or to the stomach of both man and beast; and some of them are well named, as devil's bit, snake flower, fly poison, witch -grass, and others. In these hot days, when Nature ripens all her fruits, let us learn to know our friends from our foes lest we reap the harvest of the careless and unseeing.