. A manual of poisonous plants, chiefly of eastern North America, with brief notes on economic and medicinal plants, and numerous illustrations. Poisonous plants. SPERMATOPHYTA—PAPAVERACEAE 485 all liable to be eaten, on acount of its peculiar blood red color, \yhich is forbiddingly sus- picious, and more especially because of an exceedingly acrid taste which would render the chewing and swallowing of a poisonous quantity an act of heroism. It is exceedingly com- mon throughout the northeastern United States, and in a number of localities within a few miles of this city. Th( root also contains
. A manual of poisonous plants, chiefly of eastern North America, with brief notes on economic and medicinal plants, and numerous illustrations. Poisonous plants. SPERMATOPHYTA—PAPAVERACEAE 485 all liable to be eaten, on acount of its peculiar blood red color, \yhich is forbiddingly sus- picious, and more especially because of an exceedingly acrid taste which would render the chewing and swallowing of a poisonous quantity an act of heroism. It is exceedingly com- mon throughout the northeastern United States, and in a number of localities within a few miles of this city. Th( root also contains chclerythrin, homochelidonin and protopin. 4. Chelidon'mm L Erect branching herbs, with alternate deeply pinnatifid leaves; yellow juice and flowers; 2 sepals; 4 petals; stamens numerous; distinct styles; capsule linear, dehiscent to the base; seeds smooth, shining, and crested. Distribution. A genus of one species, native to Europe, but widely natural- ized in North America. Chelidonium majus L. Celandine Flowers consisting of 2 sepals which are ovate, yellowish, soon falling; corolla 4 petals, contracted at the base; stamens numerous, shorter than the petals. Poisonous and Medical properties. The alkaloid chelerythrin C^jH^^^NO^ is identical with the sangiiinarin of the last plant. Chelidonin, C^jH^^NOg HjO, an alkaloid existing particularly in the root, is colorless and bitter. Homochelidonin, consisting of three basic substances is found in Bocconia, San- guinaria, Adlumia etc. This plant produces congestion of the lungs and liver; it is also an excessive irritant, and has a narcotic action upon the nervous system, in its action resembling gamboge. On this point Dr. White says: Mr. Cheney informs me that he has known the plant to poison the skin, if handled so as to crush the leaves or stem. To indicate this extent to which it is used in medicine, it may be stated that a collector in North Carolina offers fifteen hundred pounds of the leaves for sale. CRUaFERAE. Mustard
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