=Common Fritillary= (_Fritillaria Meleagris_ L.). The Fritillary or Snake’s Head occurs only in a few places in England, and truly wild perhaps only rarely in southern and eastern counties—not in Scotland or Ireland. No definite case of poisoning has been found in the literature, but the plant is stated to be poisonous. It contains the bitter alkaloid _Imperialine_ (C_{ 35}H_{ 60}NO_{ 4}), which is a heart poison.
=Bog Asphodel= (_Narthecium ossifragum_ Huds.) has by some been regarded as a poisonous plant, and Müller says that the poisoning of cows has been recorded, and also that a cat died after drinking the milk of an affected cow. The toxic property is believed to be the glucoside _Narthecin_.
=Molinia caerulea=, _Moench_. A short account by Pott shows that when forming the principal part of moorland pasture grasses, and hence extensively eaten, this grass causes brittleness of the bones of stock, and in sheep chlorosis and wool eating. It also induces hæmaturia, but if free from parasitic fungi (_e.g._ _Claviceps microcephala_) and not covered with microscopic, sharp crystals, is quite harmless if only eaten as a secondary or incidental fodder. This grass seems to be very poor in lime (Immendorf, 1898), and Schulze and Castoro found the internodes of the stem to contain a considerable quantity of a pentosan (Xylan). It is poor in nutritive constituents. The harm done is due perhaps in part to this fact, and in part to more or less accidental or occasional constituents (as 0·046 per cent. of lead oxide in a case of the var. _altissima_ near some lead works). Plants said to be occasionally similarly harmful are _Juncus_ sp., _Nepeta Glechoma_, and _Hieracium Pilosella_.
CHAPTER VIII THE EFFECTS OF PLANTS ON MILK.
A number of poisonous plants have a considerable influence on the milk yield of animals which eat them, reducing it in volume or in fat content, or imparting to it an unpleasant flavour which renders it unfit for human consumption, and even affecting the butter made from it. Other plants not actually poisonous also affect milk by “tainting” it, and must therefore be considered harmful otherwise than as mere weeds. Still others affect milk by causing it to be stained with blood, and in some cases the toxic principle of the plant concerned is even stated to have rendered the milk poisonous. It will be useful to give here a brief account of milk-affecting plants, though it is probable that there may be others which are not mentioned.