The Botanist's Companion Part 36

649. MERCURIALIS annua. ANNUAL DOG'S MERCURY.--Persons who are in the habit of gathering wild herbs to cook, should be careful of this. It grows plentifully in all rich grounds, and is common with Fat Hen and the other herbs usually collected for such purposes in the spring, and from which it is not readily distinguished: at least, I cannot describe a difference that a person ignorant of botany can distinguish it by.

650. PERIPLOCA graeca.--This is an ornamental creeping plant, and commonly grown in gardens for covering verandas, and other places for shade.

I once witnessed a distressing case. A nurse walking in a garden gathered flower of this plant, and gave it to a child which she had in her arms. The infant having put it to its mouth, it caused a considerable swelling and inflammation, which came on so suddenly, that, had it not been that one of the labourers had met with a similar accident, no one would have known the cause. The child was several days before it was out of danger, as the inflammation had reached the throat.

651. VERATRUM alb.u.m. WHITE h.e.l.lEBORE.--The roots of this plant, and also of the Veratrum nigrum, have been imported mixed with the roots of yellow gentian, and have proved poisonous.--Lewis's Materia Medica.

POISONOUS FUNGI.

The deleterious effects of these generally show themselves soon after they are in the stomach. Vomiting should be immediately excited, and then the vegetable acids should be given; either vinegar, lemon-juice, or that of apples; after which, give ether and antispasmodic remedies, to stop the excessive bilious vomiting. Infusions of gall-nut, oak-bark, and Peruvian bark, are recommended as capable of neutralizing the poisonous principle of mushrooms. It is however the safest way not to eat any of these plants until they have been soaked in vinegar. Spirit of wine, and ether, extract some part of their poison; and tanning matter decomposes the greatest part of it.

Agaricus bulbosus.

-------- necator.

-------- mamosus.

-------- piperitus.

-------- campanulatus.

-------- muscarius.

These are kown to be poisonous. But the fungi should all be used with great caution; for I believe even the Champignon and Edible mushroom to possess deleterious qualities when grown in certain places.

SECTION XIV.--PLANTS NOXIOUS TO CATTLE.

The foregoing lists of poisonous plants are most of them of less dangerous tendency to cattle than to the human species: for although many of them may be mistaken for wholesome, yet, when they are growing wild, it will be observed, that the discriminating powers of the brute creation in this point are so correct, that very few have been known to be eaten by them.

The following are a few of a different cla.s.s, which, as not containing any thing particularly disagreeable to the taste of cattle, are frequently eaten by them to their injury.

The agricultural student should make himself perfectly acquainted with those.

652. CICUTA virosa. COWBANE.--Linnaeus observes, that cattle have died in consequence of eating the roots. It is fortunate that this plant is not very plentiful: it is poisonous to all kinds of cattle except goats. The flower of this plant is not unlike that of water-parsneps, which cows at some seasons will eat great quant.i.ties of.

653. BEAR'S GARLICK. Allium ursinum.

654. CROW GARLICK. Allium vineale.

These plants very frequently occur in meadow-land, and have property of giving a strong garlick flavour to the milk yielded by cows that feed there; and which is often also communicated to the b.u.t.ter.

655. DARNELL GRa.s.s. Lolium temulentum.--This gra.s.s has the faculty of causing poultry or birds to become intoxicated, and so much so that it causes their death.

656. LOUSEWORT. Pedicularis pal.u.s.tris.--This plant, which abounds in wet meadows, is said to produce a lousy disease in cows if they eat of it.

657. MAYWEED. Anthemis cotula.--This is altogether of such an acrid nature, that the hands of persons employed in weeding crops and reaping, are often so blistered and corroded as to prevent their working. It also has been known to blister the mouths and nostrils of cattle when feeding where it grows.

658. COLCHIc.u.m autumnale. MEADOW-SAFFRON.--This is a common plant in pasture-land in Worcesters.h.i.+re, Herefords.h.i.+re, and other counties. Many are the instances that have occurred of the bad effects of it to cattle.

I have this last autumn known several cows that died in consequence of eating this plant.

659. MELILOT. Trifolium officinale.--This plant when eaten by cows communicates a disagreeable taste to milk and b.u.t.ter.

660. ROUND-LEAVED SUN-DEW. Drosera rotundifolia.--Very common on marshy commons, and is said to be poisonous to sheep, and to give them the disease called the rot.

661. SEA BARLEY-GRa.s.s. Hordeum maritimum.--This gra.s.s has been known in the Isle of Thanet and other places to produce a disease in the mouths of horses, by the panicles of the gra.s.s penetrating the skin.

662. WATER-HEMLOCK. Ph.e.l.landrium aquatic.u.m.--Linnaeus informs us that the horses in Sweden by eating of this plant are seized with a kind of palsy, which he supposes is brought upon them, not so much by any noxious qualities in the plant itself, as by a certain insect which breeds in the stalks, called by him for that reason Curculio paraplecticus [Syst. Nat. 510]. The Swedes give swine's dung for the cure.