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 subject is of importance for 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. The dividing line between plants that are actually poisonous and those which are only suspected is far from clear, but a division was considered desirable for the convenience of the reader, and an endeavor has been made to give a sound but brief statement as to the present information on plants poisonous to livestock in the United Kingdom, with symptoms, toxic principles, and a list of the more important references to the bibliography in relation to each plant included in Chapters II to VI (the numbers corresponding with the numbers in the Bibliography).
