CARROT FAMILY 



its watery habitat. The leaves are simply pinnate, 

 the segments long, narrow, and distant, but become 

 more or less variable as conditions change; the basal 

 leaves often bipinnate in their lower segments. The 

 plant belongs to the poison group of Water-Hemlock 

 and Poison-Hemlock, but it is not so tall as either; 

 its leaves are quite different but the books report it 

 as poisonous. Its umbels of white flowers are typical 

 of the entire poisonous group. 



POISON-HEMLOCK. SPOTTED COWBANE 



Conium maculatum 



Conium, Greek, Hemlock. 



Biennial. Naturalized from Europe. An umbellif- 

 erous herb two to five feet high, bearing many umbels 

 of small, white flowers. Moist soil, waste places. New 

 England west to Michigan, south to Virginia. June-July. 



Stem. — Smooth, erect, much branched, hollow, often 

 purple-spotted. 



Leaves. — Lower and basal leaves petioled; the upper 

 nearly sessile. Pinnati and thrice-divided; leaflets 

 finely cut and toothed. 



Flowers. — White, borne in terminal compound umbels, 

 each with ten to fifteen rays, and each ray bearing a small 

 umbel of tiny, white, five-petaled flowers. Involucre 

 and involucels of small narrow bracts. 



Fruit. — Of two dry seed-like carpels, cohering by their 

 inner face, grayish-brown when ripe, about one-eighth 

 of an inch long, ovoid, flattened at the side, prominently 

 ribbed and having on the flattened surface a deep narrow 

 groove. 



This is one of the most dangerous, because it is 

 one of the most poisonous plants of our flora. It is 



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