ORDEAL n.
t Africa, used, like the ordeal bean, in trials for witchcraft. -- Ordeal tree (Bot.), a poisonous tree of Madagascar (Tanghinia, or Cerbera, venenata). Persons suspected of crime are forced to eat the seeds of the plumlike fruit, and criminals are put to death by being pricked with a lance dipped in the juice of the…
OURSELVES pron.
us, abounding in grace; arduous, full of ardor; bulbous, having bulbs, bulblike; riotous, poisonous, piteous, joyous, etc.
OXALIC a.
otash on sawdust, as a white crystalline substance, which has a strong acid taste, and is poisonous in large doses. It is used in dyeing, calico printing, bleaching flax and straw, the preparation of formic acid, and in salts of lemon for removing ink stains, mold, etc.
PARSNIP n.
the cultivated form of the Pastinaca sativa, a biennial umbelliferous plant which is very poisonous in its wild state; also, the plant itself. Cow parsnip. See Cow parsnip. -- Meadow parsnip, the European cow parsnip. -- Poison parsnip, the wild stock of the parsnip. -- Water parsnip, any plant of the umbelliferous…
PHOSPHORUS n. 2 definitions
A poisonous nonmetallic element of the nitrogen group, obtained as a white, or yellowish, translucent waxy substance, having a characteristic disagreeable smell. It is very active chemically, must be preserved under water, and unites with oxygen even at ordinary temperatures, giving a faint glow, -- whence its name. It…
POISON n.
und in the West Indies, from the trunk of which a black liquor distills, supposed to have poisonous qualities. (b) The poison sumac (Rhus venenata). [U. S.] -- Poison dogwood (Bot.), poison sumac. -- Poison fang (Zoöl.), one of the superior maxillary teeth of some species of serpents, which, besides having the cavity…
POISON BUSH n. 2 definitions
Any fabaceous shrub of the genus Gastrolobium, the herbage of which is poisonous to stock; also, any species of several related genera, as Oxylobium, Gompholobium, etc.
SAPONIN n.
A poisonous glucoside found in many plants, as in the root of soapwort (Saponaria), in the bark of soap bark (Quillaia), etc. It is extracted as a white amorphus powder, which occasions a soapy lather in solution, and produces a local anæstesia. Formerly called also struthiin, quilaiin, senegin, polygalic acid, etc. By…
SERPENT n.
hem.), mercuric sulphocyanate, a combustible white substance which in burning gives off a poisonous vapor and leaves a peculiar brown voluminous residue which is expelled in a serpentine from. It is employed as a scientific toy. -- Serpent cucumber (Bot.), the long, slender, serpentine fruit of the cucurbitaceous plan…