CICUTA MACULATA. 
American Hemlock. 
PLATE Xi. 
Ir is a rule sanctioned by the observations of 
medical botanists, that umbelliferous plants, which 
grow in or about the water, are of a poisonous na- 
ture. This rule will generally be found correct, al- 
though it has exceptions. As far as aquatic plants 
of this natural order have been examined, their 
properties, in a great majority of instances, have 
been found, more or less of a deleterious kind. 
The Cicuta virosa of Europe is a highly poisonous 
plant, possessing such formidable activity that its 
internal use is hardly attempted in medicine. An 
American species, the Cicuta maculata, the sub- 
ject of this article, is very closely allied in its bo- 
tanical habit to the European plant, and was equal- 
ly deserving of suspicion from its appearance, al- 
though the public were not generally aware of its 
true character. Within a few years past, several 
