ad 
The Ufeful Family. . : b 6 aes 
five, or fix, feldom more:. They are lo. 
Bi 
confiderably broad, mage cinieds notched about 
the Edges, anda little hairy. . The Flowers are 
inconfiderable : ‘They ftand in a kind of Spikes at 
the Tops of the Stalks; and the Seeds are on fe- 
_parate Plants, .they are double and roundifh. 
The Herb has been from this divided into two 
Kinds, Male and Female, but they have in ear- 
- lier Time given the Diftinctions of the Sex wrong. 
Thofe which bear the Spikes of Flowers are the 
Male Plants; the others, notwithftanding any ac» 
cidental Refemblance, Female. 
There isnot a more fatal Plant, Native of our 
Country, than this; many have been known to 
die by eating it boiled with their Food; and pro- 
bably many alfo, whom we have not heard of: 
Yet the Writers of Englifh Herbals, fay nothing 
of this. Gerard, an honeft and plain Writer, but 
ignorant as Dirt, fays, it is thought they agree 
with the other Mercuries in Nature. Thefe other 
-~Mercuries. are eatable; therefore, who would 
feruple on this Account to eat alfo this. ‘Fobnfon, 
who put forth another Edition of this Book, and 
“called it Gerard Emaculated, from the amending. 
the Faults of the original Author, fays nothing 
to contradict it: But after fome. idle Obfer- 
© Vations upon other Herbs of the fame Name, but 
-yery different Qualities, which yet he feems to 
 fuppofe of the fame Nature, leaves his Reader to 
_ fuppofe, that he meant equally any of the Kinds 
_ of Mercury, forthe Purpofes he names ; and, like 
his Predeceffor Gerard, fuppofed them all-t0. be 
alike; thofe fafe, and thofe poifonous, Itistrue, _ 
Mr. Ray, in his Synopfis of the Briti/> Plants, 
gives an Account of it as a Poifon, and muft fuf- 
ficiently warn all who read him, from the 
But who reads him? His Book in which 
=. 
Fae Pee Se Me Tee oe age 
