EVERY year sees many adults, and especially children, accidentally poisoned from contact with plants that they did not know were harmful. Had the sufferers known how to detect poisonous plants they could have avoided them and escaped the painful experience of severe skin inflammations and water blisters. Very few persons have a sufficient degree of immunity to protect them from poisonous plants, and many do not recognize them in the various forms that they assume in different parts of the country.

One or more kinds of poison-ivy—common poison-ivy, oakleaf poison-ivy, and western poison-oak—occur in abundance in almost every part of the United States. Poison sumac is of more limited distribution and occurs chiefly east of the Mississippi River, usually in swampy regions.

Poisoning by these plants is largely preventable. A knowledge sufficient to identify them in their various forms is easily gained by anyone who will make a study of pictures and general descriptions and train himself by a little diligent practice to observe the plants in his locality. It is important to become poison-oak or poison-ivy conscious. This can be accomplished only by learning to know the plants by repeated experience in observing them in their various forms. Persons who learn both to know and to avoid the plants can save themselves much inconvenience and discomfort. The simple means of learning to recognize them will pay big dividends. It is the first step to the prevention of poisoning and to the eradication of the pests from private grounds and public places.

The most effective method of prevention is to eradicate the plants, and wherever possible this should be done. They should not be allowed to grow in lawns or gardens, with ornamental shrubbery, or on houses. Communities should not countenance the growth of poison-ivy or poison-oak in school grounds, on public roadways, or in parks, especially those frequented by children. The cost of medical aid for one season in treating pupils using an ivy-infested schoolyard is likely to be more than that of eradicating the plants, to say nothing of the suffering and inconvenience they may cause.