The Botanist's Companion Part 32

597. SERRATULA tinctoria. SAW-WORT.--The whole herb produces a yellow tincture.

598. SENECIO Jacobaea. RAGWORT.--The roots, stalks, and leaves, before the flowering season, give out a green colour which can be fixed on wool.

599. STACHYS sylvatica. HEDGE-h.o.r.eHOUND.--The whole herb is said to dye a yellow colour.

600. THALICTRUM flavum. YELLOW MEADOW-RUE.--The roots and leaves both give out a fine yellow colour.

601. THAPSIA villosa. DEADLY CARROT.--The umbels are employed by the spanish peasants to dye yellow.

602. TORMENTILLA erecta. ERECT TORMENTIL.--This root is red, and might probably be usefully employed.

603. TRIFOLIUM pratense. MEADOW-CLOVER.--The inhabitants of Scania employ the heads to dye their woollen cloth green.

604. URTICA dioica. NETTLE.--The roots of bettles are used to dye eggs of a yellow colour against the feast of Easter by the religious of the Greek church, as are also madder and logwood for the same purpose.

605. XANTHIUM strumarium. LESSER BURBOCK.--The whole herb with the fruit dyes a most beautiful yellow.

SECTION XII.---PLANTS USED IN RURAL OECONOMY.

The following few plants are such as are used for domestic purposes which do not fall under any of the foregoing heads, and I therefore have placed them together here.

606. CONFERVA.--This green thready substance has the power of rendering foetid water sweet; for which purpose, when water is scarce, it is usually put into water-tubs and reservoirs.

607. CORYLUS Avellana. HAZEL NUT.--The young shoots of hazel put into casks with scalding water, render them sweet if they are musty, or contain any bad flavour.

608. CROCUS vernus. SPRING CROCUS.--Is well kown as a spring flower, producing one of the most cheerful ornaments to the flower-garden early in the spring. It affords a great variety in point of beauty and colour, and is an article of considerable trade among the Dutch gardeners, who cultivate a great number of varieties, which every year are imported into this and other countries.

609. EQUISETUM hyemale. DUTCH RUSH.--Of this article great quant.i.ties are brought from Holland for the purpose of polis.h.i.+ng mahogany. The rough parts of the plant are discovered to be particles of flint.

610. ERIOPHORUM polystachion. COTTON GRa.s.s.--The down of the seeds has been used, instead of feathers, for beds and cus.h.i.+ons; and the foliage in the north of Scotland is considered useful as fodder.

611. GALIUM verum. YELLOW LADIES' BEDSTRAW.--The foliage affords the dairy-maid a fine rennet for making cheese.

SECTION XIII.--POISONOUS PLANTS GROWING IN GREAT BRITAIN.

"On the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

I have found it necessary to be particular in my description of the articles in this section, as I find that, although the knowledge of Botany has in some measure increased, yet, in general, we are not better acquainted with the Poisonous Vegetables than we were thirty years ago.

Many and frequent are the accidents which occur in consequence of mistakes being made with those plants; but it in general happens that, from feelings easily appreciated, persons do not like to detail such misfortunes; which not only hides the mischief, but prevents, in a great measure, the antidotes becoming so well known as for the good of society we could wish they were. This I experienced in my researches after several facts which I wished to ascertain regarding this subject.

However, whilst we have in common use such plants as Foxglove, Hemlock, and Henbane, and which are now so generally sold in our herb-shops, people who sell them ought to be particularly careful not to let such fall into the hands of ignorant persons, and thereby be administered either in mistake or in improper quant.i.ties. Our druggists and apothecaries are careful in not selling to strangers the more common preparations of Mercury, or a.r.s.enic, drugs which in themselves carry fear and dismay in their very names; yet we can get any poisonous vegetables either in the common market, or of herb-dealers, which are more likely to be abused in their application than other poisons which are of not more dangerous tendencies.

The effects of Vegetable Poisons on the human frame vary according to circ.u.mstances. The most usual are: that of disturbing the nervous function, producing vertigo, faintness, delirium, madness, stupor, or apoplexy, with a consequent loss of understanding, of speech, and of all the senses; and, frequently, this dreadful scene ends in death in a short period.

It is, however, fortunate that these dangerous plants, which either grow wild, or are cultivated in this country, are few in number; and it is not less so, that the most virulent often carry with them their own antidote, as many of them, from their disagreeable taste, produce nausea and sickness, by which their mischief is frequently removed; and when this is not the case, it points out that the best and most effectual one is the application of emetics: and it may be almost considered a divine dispensation, that a plant, very common in all watery places, should be ready at hand, which has from experience proved one of the most active drugs of this nature, and this is the Ranunculus Flammula, Water- Spearwort. The juice of this plant, in cases of such emergency, may be given in the quant.i.ty of a table-spoonful, and repeated every three minutes until it operates, which it usually will do before the third is taken into the stomach.

After the vomiting is over, the effects often remain, by part of the deleterious qualities being absorbed by the stomach; and as it often happens, in such cases, that medical a.s.sistance may not be at hand, I shall, under the head of each cla.s.s, give their proper antidote, which should be in all cases applied as soon as possible, even before medical a.s.sistance is procured. And it should not be forgotten that, in dreadful cases where the medicine cannot be forced down through the usual channel, recourse should be had to the use of clysters.

Under each of the following heads I shall describe such cases as have come under my notice; as they may be useful for comparison: and shall put under each of the more dangerous the Plantae affines, describing as accurately as possible the differences.