Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1902 — DANGER IN FLOWERS. [ARTICLE]

DANGER IN FLOWERS.

Tulips and Poppies Aatong Those to Be Avoided. Beware how you handle lovely flowers, or inhale their aroma. Queer Dame Nature has provided a hidden sting in some of the blossoms that bloom in the spring. There is a particular variety of garden flower known as obconcla. If the finger of the gardener is pricked by the plant there is sure to follow a slight itching of the hands that is a preliminary to the breaking out of an almost incurable skin disease. The Irritation of the cuticle generally dies away in the fall and apparently has been got rid of by winter. But In the spring It invariably shows Itself again and, In some cases, It has resisted every effort to eliminate It from the system. Because of the risk in touching the plant, the gardener who knows his business Invariably handles It with gloves on. Tulips are another flower In which there is a hidden danger. If the odor of the tulip Is inhaled for a time It produces lightheadedness, which is followed by a feeling df deep depression. The poppy, on account of the great quantity of opium it contains, has the effect of making any one who passes through a field of these flowers feel very drowsy. In Asia Minor, where they are grown in great quantities, it is risky for one unaccustomed to the odor to pass through the neighborhood. x Two deaths among tourists were traced directly to visits paid to a poppy plantation. All flowers grown from bulbs should be banished from the rooms of a sick or invalid person. It would be as much an act of kindness to present a Bick person with a dose of morphine as to send a patient a bunch of lilies of the valley, tuberoses or hyacinths. The only place for these flowers is the death chamber. Be careful, too, how you pluck to pieces such blossoms as begonias, rhododendrons or peonies. If there Is a slight scratch on the fingers that handle these flowers carelessly, it is probable that festering will follow, with a possible loss of the finger nails.