UMBELLIFERZA. CLVIII. Conrum. 
Hayn. arz. gew. 1. t. 31. Sowerb. engl. bot. t. 1191, Jacq. 
austr. 2. t. 156. Woodv. med. bot. t. 22. Plench, icon. t. 183. 
Cicita maculata, Lam. fl. fr. 3. p. 104. Cicita major, Lam, 
dict. 2. p. 3. Coridndrum Cicita, Crantz, austr. 24. Cori4ndrum 
maculatum, Roth, fl. germ. 1. p. 130. Cicùta, Hall. helv. no. 
766. Riv. pent. irr. 75. Blackw. t. 451. Lob. icon. 732. f. 1. 
Cicita doméstica, Mor. umb. 18. c. b. sect. 9. t. 6. f. 1. Cò- 
nium tenuifòlium, Mill. dict. no. 2. Stem hollow, green, but 
often of a livid colour, marked with dark spots. Hemlock is 
obviously distinguished from all other umbelliferous plants by 
its spotted stem, by the dark and shining green colour of the 
bottom leaves, and particularly by their disagreeable smell when 
bruised. According to Linnæus, sheep eat the leaves, and 
horses, cows, and goats refuse it. Ray informs us, that the 
thrush will feed upon the seeds even when corn is to be had. 
Hemlock has been stigmatised as one of the most noxious of 
vegetable poisons, has for many years been considered as a 
highly useful and powerful article of the Materia Medica, and 
it has been proved that though highly deleterious when impru- 
dently used, yet in small doses it has been productive of consi- 
derable benefit in cases which have resisted the usual methods. 
The first physician who endeavoured to bring hemlock into repute 
. as a medicine was Baron Stoerck, of Vienna, who announced its 
extraordinary effects in the most inveterate chronic disorders in 
1760. _ The whole plant is a virulent poison, but varying very 
much in strength, according to circumstances. When taken in 
an over-dose, it produces vertigo, dimness of sight, difficulty of 
speech, nausea, fetid eructations, anxiety, tremors, and paralysis 
of the limbs. But Dr. Stoerck found that in small doses it may 
be taken in great safety, and that, without at all disordering the 
Constitution, or even producing any sensible operation, it some- 
times proves a powerful remedy in many obstinate disorders. 
In scirrhus, the internal and external use of hemlock has been 
found useful, but mercury has been generally used at the same 
time. In open cancer it often abates the pain, and is free from 
the constipating effects of opium. It is likewise used in 
scrofulous tumours, and in other ill-conditioned ulcers. It is 
also recommended by some in chin-cough, and various other 
diseases, Its most common and best form is that of the powdered 
leaves, in the dose at first of 2 or 3 grains a day, which in some 
Cases has been gradually increased to upwards of 2 ounces a day. 
An extract from the seeds is said to produce giddiness sooner 
than that from the leaves. 
Hemlock should not be gathered unless its peculiar smell be 
Strong. The leaves should be collected in the month of June, 
when the plant is in flower. The leaflets should be picked off, 
and the footstalks thrown away. The leaflets are then to be 
dried quickly in a hot sun, or rather on tin plates before a fire, 
and preserved in bags of strong brown paper, or powdered and 
€pt in close vessels, excluded from the light; for the light soon 
issipates their green colour, and with it the virtues of the medi- 
“ine. The narcotic seeds are most active and uniform when 
ty ripe. When the fresh root is wounded, it yields a bit- 
er and acrid juice, which Stoerck found to excite in the tongue 
swelling, stiffness, violent pain, and transient paralysis. Pfaff is 
of Opinion, that the virtues of the hemlock reside in a volatile 
principle, which, however, he was not able to obtain separate. 
r. Paris says, that the medicinal activity of the plant resides in 
* resinous element, which may be obtained in an insulated form 
Y evaporating an etherial tincture made with the leaves on the 
Surface of water. It has a rich dark green colour, and tastes 
of hemlock in perfection. A dose of half a grain will produce 
Vertigo and headache. 
bron 7: P> striatum (Tratt. arch. 1. t. 24.) stem diffuse, much 
ranched, very straight; umbels and umbellules proliferous. 
VoL. Il, 
CLIX. Vicatia. CLX. Arracacua, 377 
H ; svi Native of Hungary, at the river Leitha, Schultes, syst. 
. p. 655. 
Spotted-stemmed or Common Hemlock. Fl. June, July. Brit. 
Pl. 4 to 6 feet. 
2 C. Croa’ricum (Waldst. et Kit. in Willd. enum. p. 305.) 
leaves of involucels linear, equal in length to the umbellules or 
exceeding them. ¢. H. Native of Croatia. According to 
Kittabail and Willd. this is a distinct species; but it is only a 
variety of the preceding according to Schultes, Koch, and Host. 
The cultivated plant is hardly to be distinguished from the 
common species, unless in its more glaucous hue. 
Croatian Hemlock. FI. June, July. Clt. 1818. 
6 feet. 
_ Cult, The seeds only require to be sown in the open ground 
in autumn. 
Pl. 5 to 
CLIX. VICA'TIA (named after M. Vicat, who has wrote 
upon poisonous plants). D. C. prod. 4. p. 243.—Sison species, 
Wall. 
Lin. syst. Penténdria, Digiynia. Margin of calyx entire. 
Petals unknown. Styles short, at length diverging. Fruit 
ovate-oblong. Mericarps almost semi-terete, with 5 filiform 
ribs: and broad flat furrows containing many small vittæ each ; 
commissure narrow. Carpophore thick, rather bifid at the apex. 
Albumen furnished with a furrow in the commissure, convex on 
the outside.—A glabrous erect herb, native of Nipaul. Leaves 
petiolate, bipinnate; leaflets bipinnatifid: lobes linear, acute, 
slender. Stems sparingly leafy at the base; the rest naked. 
Umbels terminal, without any involucrum, of many rays; rays 
unequal, umbellules of the shorter ones sterile. Involucels want- 
ing, or very small, and of few leaves, Habit of Cònium, but the 
character is near that of Arracdcha. Fruit almost like that of 
the genus Pimpinélla, but differs in the seed being curved. 
1 V. conitrorta (D.C. prod. 4. p. 248.) 4%.? H. Native of 
Nipaul, at Kamaon. Sison? coniifolium, Wall. mss. Herb 14 
foot high. Leaves a foot long, of a thin membranous consis- 
tence. 
Hemlock-leaved Vicatia. PI. 14 foot. 
Cult. This plant will grow in any soil or situation, and will 
be easily propagated by seed. 
CLX. ARRACA’CHA (the name of the plant by the Spa- 
niards of South America). Bancr. in gart. dir. p. 382, ex 
Linnea. litt. 1829. p. 13. D. C. in bibl. univ, 1829. jan. p. 74. 
prod. 4. p. 243.—Conium species of authors. 
Lin. syst. Pentdndria, Digynia. Margin of calyx obso- 
lete. Petals lanceolate or ovate, entire, with an inflexed point, 
curved above the middle nerve. Stylopodium conical, thick ; 
styles diverging, at length reflexed. Fruit ovate-oblong, some- 
what compressed from the sides; mericarps with 5 equal, not 
crenulated ribs: lateral ribs marginating; vittæ many in the 
furrows. Albumen nearly semi-terete, furnished with a furrow 
in the commissure.—Perennial South American herbs, of a salu- 
brious quality. Roots tuberous, thick, edible. Leaves pinnate 
or bipinnate : leaflets deeply toothed, lower ones tripartite. Um- 
bels opposite the leaves or terminal. Involucrum wanting or of 
one leaf; involucels of 3 leaves. Flowers polygamous; those 
of the rays hermaphrodite, and those of the disk male or imper- 
fect. Petals white. This genus is nearly allied to Conium, but 
differs in the form of the petals, and in the ribs of the fruit being 
‘entire, not undulately crenulated. 
1 A. escute’ntA (D. C. prod. 4. p. 244.) leaves pinnate ; 
leaflets 5, broadly ovate, acuminated, deeply pinnatifid, pro- 
foundly serrated ; the 2 lower leaflets petiolate, subternate ; in- 
Meanie wanting; ribs of fruit obtuse. YJ. F, Native of 
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