CAMBRIDGE AGRICULTURAL MONOGRAPHS PLANTS POISONOUS TO LIVE STOCK CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, MANAGER London: FETTER LANE, E.C. Edinburgh: 100 PRINCES STREET [Illustration] London: H. K. LEWIS AND CO. LTD., 136, GOWER STREET, W.C. London: WILLIAM WESLEY AND SON, 28, ESSEX STREET, STRAND New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS Bombay, Calcutta and Madras: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. Toronto: J. M. DENT AND SONS, LTD. Tokyo: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA _All rights reserved_ [Illustration: _a_ Reddish-brown to reddish-purple “Java” Beans (_Phaseolus lunatus_); _b_ “Red Rangoon” Beans (_P. lunatus_); _c_ “Large White” Beans (_P. lunatus_); _d_ Castor Oil Beans (_Ricinus communis_); _e_ “Indian Peas” (_Lathyrus sativus_), from Bombay; _f_ Ergot (_Claviceps purpurea_), from Spain. All natural size.] PLANTS POISONOUS TO LIVE STOCK BY HAROLD C. LONG, B.Sc. (Edin.) of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries Author of _Common Weeds of the Farm and Garden_ Cambridge: at the University Press 1917 PREFACE As in the case of a previous volume, _Common Weeds of the Farm and Garden_, the preparation of this handbook was undertaken because of the great lack of readily available and reliable information on the subject in English scientific literature. Many of the facts were known to a few interested persons, but many others were so scattered here and there in technical reports and journals that they were scarcely known even to expert chemists and botanists. The bringing of this information together in some sort of order has involved considerable labour extending over several years, but if the volume be found helpful to those for whose use it has been prepared I shall feel more than gratified. That the subject is of importance is fully realised by farmers and veterinary surgeons alike, for the annual loss of stock due to poisonous plants, though not ascertainable, is undoubtedly considerable. It was felt that notes on mechanical injury caused by plants and on the influence of plants on milk might usefully be included, as in some degree related to poisoning; this has therefore been done. On the other hand, a number of cultivated plants (_e.g._ _Rhus_, _Wistaria_) which are poisonous have not been included because exotic and hardly likely to be eaten by stock. Fungi generally also find no place in the volume, as they are sufficiently extensive to deserve a volume to themselves, and are far less readily identified than flowering plants.