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Salisbury, William, -1823

"The Botanist's Companion, Volume II"


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 butter.

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-GRASS. Hordeum maritimum.--This grass 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 grass penetrating the skin.

662. WATER-HEMLOCK. Phellandrium aquaticum.--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.

663. YEW. Taxus baccata.--This is poisonous to cattle: farmers and other
persons should be careful of this being thrown where sheep or cattle
feed in snowy weather. It is particularly dangerous to deer, for they
will eat of it with avidity when it comes in their way.

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SECTION XV.


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