POISONOUS PLANTS

Christmas rose was once used to treat children for worms, but it usually killed the child as well as the worms. . . . One girl died from drinking water out of a vase filled with lily of the valley. . . . A man in Tennessee nearly killed his whole family by grafting a tomato vine onto a Jimson weed stem. . . . And be sure to watch out for the sprouts and green spots in potatoes. Limburg's plant-by-plant listing touches on symptoms and reactions; the poisonous plants' different common names and the names of the responsible chemicals, if known; the parts to avoid; and the uses, medicinal and otherwise, to which the plants have been put. Almost identical wording in different entries (such as caladium and dumb cane, early on) can be a drag, and certainly Zaum's drawings aren't sufficient for identification. The whole approach is roughly comparable to Busch's (p. 474, J-158), but Limburg ignores first aid (as ""treatment should be left to the doctor"") and is more specific about degrees of toxicity.