\ 
( 14 he | 
ROOT biennial, thick, tapering, jointed, fending off numerous: 
long flender fibres. Stalk thick, hollow, {mooth, jointed, branched, . 
fcored, ufually about two feet in height. Leaves large, triply pin- 
nated, ramifying at right angles, or divaricating ; leafits irregularly 
pinnatifid; leaves under the water filiform. Flowers fmall, white, 
in terminal umbels. General involucrum none. Partial involucrum 
of feven leaves, which are pointed, and about the length of the 
proper umbel. Calyx five-toothed, permanent. Flowers all fertile, 
and forming a flat uniform furface. Individual florets unequal, {maller 
at the centre. Petals five, heart-fhaped, bent inwards. Filaments 
five, capillary longer than the petals. Antherx roundifh, Germen 
ovate. Styles two, tapering, upright, permanent. Stigmata blunt. 
Fruit ovate, {mooth, divifible into two parts or feeds, . : 
It grows in rivers, ditches, and pools, flowering in June and 
uly. 3 
: This plant is generally fuppofed to poflefs deleterious qualities. 
Horfes, on eating it, are faid to become paralytic; but this effec fhould 
not be afcribed to the Phellandrium, but to an infect which refides, 
within its ftalks, viz. the Curculio parapleéficus. 
The feeds of the plant, however, according to Dr. Lange,” when 
taken in large dofes, produce a remarkable fenfation of weight in the 
head, accompanied with giddinefs, intoxication, &c. and therefore 
may be deemed capable of proving an active medicine. They are 
oblong, ftriated, of a greenifh yellow, about the fize of thofe of dill, 
and manifefting an aromatic acrid tafte, approaching nearly to that of 
the feeds of lovage. Diftilled with water they yield an effential oil, 
of a pale yellow colour, and of a ftrong penetrating fmell., One 
pound of the feeds affords an ounce of watery extra&t, but nearly 
double this quantity of fpirituous extract, of which more than three. 
drams confifts of refin.° : 
Pliny * ftates the feeds of Phellandrium to be an efficacious medi- 
eine in calculous complaints, and diforders of the bladder; and in 
this opinion he is followed by Dodonzus,* who mentions them alfo 
as poflefling diuretic and emmenagogue powers. Bufon thefe autho- 
* 4 
. *See Rem. Brunfi 235.  Ernflingius, lc. © Lib. 17. ¢. 133 * Pempt, sors x 
No. 12.—Part II. Ps ets sai 
