655. DARNELL GRASS. Lolium temulentum.—This grass has the faculty of causing poultry or birds to become intoxicated, and so much so that it causes their death.
656. LOUSEWORT. Pedicularis palustris.—This plant, which abounds in wet meadows, is said to produce a lousy disease in cows if they eat of it.
657. MAYWEED. Anthemis cotula.—This is altogether of such an acrid nature, that the hands of persons employed in weeding crops and reaping, are often so blistered and corroded as to prevent their working. It also has been known to blister the mouths and nostrils of cattle when feeding where it grows.
658. COLCHICUM autumnale. MEADOW-SAFFRON.—This is a common plant in pasture-land in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and other counties. Many are the instances that have occurred of the bad effects of it to cattle. 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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