The much-admired laburnum contains a strong poison. Discovered by Husemann and Marms in 1864.
It is not generally known that the much-admired laburnum contains a strong poison, and is therefore an exceedingly dangerous plant. All its parts blossoms, leaves, seeds, even the bark and the roots are charged with a poison named cytisin, which was discovered by Husemann and Marms in 1864.
A small dose of juice infused under the skin is quite sufficient to kill a cat or a dog. Children have died from eating the seeds, of which ten or twelve were sufficient to cause death. The worst of it is that there is no remedy, no antidote against this poison. How many cases have happened before the danger was discovered is of course only a matter of conjecture, as few would suspect the cause to come from the lovely plant that so delights the eye.
It has, however, long been known to gamekeepers and others, and used by them to destroy "vermin." When quite a boy I remember an old uncle of mine telling me to beware of it even in gathering the blossom.
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