A DANGEROUS PLANT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 11340, 2 May 1912, Page 5

A DANGEROUS PLANT.

WARNING TO THE PUBLIC.

Yestorday a personal paragraph appeared in this paper to the following effect. :—- The friends of Mr W. Kemp, of Masterton, will regret to hear that he is suffering from blood poisoning, supposed to have been caused by the bite of an insect. Mr Kemp has been rendered temporarily blind, and his condition is causing his relatives the gravest anxiety. To-day Mr Kemp writes to us to saythat tho blood poisoning resulted not from an insect, but from a very dangreous plant which he unwittingly handled. He says:— '' With reference to your local last - night, I beg to inform you that 1 contracted poison from a climbing plant commonly known as Ainpelopsis Hoggii. correctly Rhus Toxicodendron, or American Toxicodrendrou. 1 had occasion to root out one of these plants last weoiv, but shall give them a wide berth for the future." It appears that this plant is a very dangerous one, and should on no account be handled, as anyone so doing is liable to contract blood poisoning. A local medical man has had two or three cases of blood poisoning from this cause of late, and ho states that it is not necessary for the hand to be cut to contract blood poisoning from tho plant. Tiie latter exudes an oily substance which enters the pores of the skin, and does its work. The public, therefore, should be careful to guard against tho plant.