1, 4, 13, 16, 35, 57, 81, 82, 128, 154, 161, 203, 242, 251.
CHAPTER VII PLANTS SUSPECTED OF BEING POISONOUS.
A very large number of plants have at various times been suspected of possessing poisonous properties and causing harm to live stock. Of these it is quite probable that many are in practice entirely harmless, but some must be included as possibly deleterious, complaints having been made which vary in gravity from a slight irritation to causing death.
=Purging Flax= (_Linum catharticum_ L.). It is perhaps doubtful whether this plant is really poisonous unless taken in considerable quantity by animals—as it is quite unlikely to be. It may, however, be included here, as it is stated to contain a glucoside which is purgative and which on fermentation yields prussic acid.
=Furze= or =Gorse= (_Ulex europæus_ L.). In view of the fact that Gerrard isolated from the seeds of Gorse the alkaloid _Ulexine_, which is identical with _Cytisine_ (p. 27) and that the alkaloid is also contained in less quantity in the bark of young shoots, this plant has been suspected of possessing toxic properties. Experiments (179)[7] with the alkaloid definitely showed it to be a nerve and muscle poison, 3 milligrammes having killed a chloroformed cat with convulsions in three minutes, though the animal could be kept alive as long as artificial respiration was kept up. As, however, Gorse has long been used very widely and in considerable quantities as a fodder the percentage content of the alkaloid must in general be exceedingly small, and no harmful effects need be feared from the consumption of the cut and bruised plant. Possibly the seeds might prove injurious if eaten in quantity.
=Melilot= (_Melilotus_ sp.) may at times cause injury. Ewart (82) writes: “All the species contain Cumarin, a volatile odoriferous principle, which in excess produces a disinclination to locomotion, paralysis and ultimately fatal symptoms. No harm is to be apprehended if the amount present does not exceed 10 per cent. of the herbage.”
=Silver Weed= (_Potentilla Anserina_ L.). This well-known and elegant little weed is scarcely likely to be eaten to any extent by farm stock, though it may possibly be taken occasionally on roadsides. It has not been proved to be poisonous, but Pott states that it has a strongly constipating effect (213).