126 CICUTA MACULATA. 
instances haye been brought to light of fatal ef- 
fects ensuing from this plant being incautiously 
eaten by children. It is therefore necessary that 
the species should be suitably designated, that a 
source of so much danger may be known and. 
avoided. 
The Cicuta maculata, to which I have applied 
the name of .dmerican Hemlock, not having 
heard any common appellation except that of 
Snakeweed, inhabits wet meadows and banks, from 
the northern to the southern limits of the United 
States, flowering in July and August. It is so fre- 
quently cut with hay, among which it often grows 
in large quantities, that we might expect to see its 
tleleterious properties operating on domestic cat- 
tle, were it not that their bodies are probably less 
susceptible of its poison than ours. The Euro- 
pean Cicuta, above mentioned, is highly noxious to 
man, and to some domestic animals, yet goats and 
sheep eat it with impunity. — 
. The genus Cicuta differs from other genera 
of umbellate plants in having no general involu- 
ere, a short, partial inyoluere, and a fruit which is 
nearly orbicular, compressed and Surrowed.* 
* This description of the fruit agrees with the present species 
and also with Cicuta bulbifera, a smaller species not uncommon about 
Boston. The Cicuta virosa of Europe I have never seen, 
