Linnean System of Plants^ lit I 



as some of the plants are aromatic and edible, others fetid ; 

 and poisonous. It is given as a general rule, that such as 

 grow in high dry situations are wholesome, while those grow- 

 ing in low and marshy situations are poisonous ; but this rule 

 is by no means to be depended upon as infallible, though it 

 holds good in nine cases out of ten. As this is a subject of no 

 small importance, I shall speak at some length of the more 

 dangerous among them, and of the characters by which they 

 may be distinguished. Several of the umbelliferous plants 

 have a few leaves at the base, either of the partial or the uni-^ 

 versal umhel^ or sometimes of both. Some botanists call these 

 leaves bracteas^ a name given to a leaf differing from the general 

 foliage of a plant, and attendant upon the flowers ; but Linnaeus 

 considered them, collectively, as a species of calyx, and called it 

 an involticrum, from the Latin involvo, to wrap. By the presence, 

 or absence, the number, form, and situation of these leaves, 

 several of the plants may be distinguished. There are three 

 genera, one aromatic, and two extremely virulent; of which 

 the partial umbels have three bracteas, on one side only. In 

 one of these, named fooPs parsley (^thiisa Cynapium), be- 

 cause, not very wisely, mistaken for the true parsley, they are 

 long and pendulous ; in hemlock (C6nium maculatum), they 

 are short, narrow, and spreading outwards, while the bracteas 

 of the universal umbel bend downwards ; in coriander (Corian- 

 drum sativum), they are linear lanceolate ( fig. 43.), 

 and those of the universal umbel are very few, if any. 

 The first two of these plants are deadly poison ; 

 the latter, though the fresh plant is fetid, and pro- 

 bably deleterious, produces an aromatic and whole- 

 some seed, which is well known. I might men- 

 tion other distinctive characters ; but, as these are 

 <^uite decisive, it is better not to oppress the 

 memory with others, which might rather tend 

 to confuse than to enlighten those who desire to remem- 

 ber them. Another very deadly plant of this tribe is the 

 hemlock water dropwort (Q^^nanthe crocata), which may be 

 known by a poisonous orange-coloured juice exuding from 

 every part of it, when bruised ; from the root, more espe- 

 cially. Even the scent of this plant has been known to occa- 

 sion a sense of giddiness in the head. Water hemlock (Cicilta 

 vir6sa) grows in ditches, and on the banks of rivers. The uni^ 

 versal umbels have but one or two, seldom any, bracteas ; the 

 partial umbels have several, narrow, taper-pointed, and of un- 

 equal size ; the leaves are biternate, and the leaflets serrated 

 (notched like a saw) at the edges, the points appearing some- 

 what white and withered. Before we proceed, it may be well 



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