POISON-HEMLOCK 



said to be the herb which suppHed the cup of poison 

 to Socrates, and thirty thousand pounds of seeds and 

 twenty thousand pounds of leaves are necessary to 

 supply the drug market and are used for nervous 

 diseases. The poisonous principle is a very powerful 

 narcotic poison. The plant is tall, clean cut, much 

 branched with leaves 

 that somewhat re- 

 semble a spreading 

 Parsley. Its white 

 compound umbels 

 are attractive and 

 there is nothing ex- 

 ternal which would 

 at first mark it save 

 its often spotted 

 stem. The whole 

 plant has a very dis- 

 agreeable * ' mousey ' ' 

 odor when bruised. 



The Water-Hem- 

 lock, Cicuta macu- 

 Idta, native, a dweller by ditches and ponds, marshy 

 places, and low grounds, is quite as poisonous as the 

 Poison-Hemlock. The roots are two to four inches 

 long, fleshy, tuberous, bunched in a cluster at the swol- 

 len base of the stem. These are especially dangerous, 

 for their taste is pleasantly aromatic, somewhat Hke 

 that of Sweet Cicely, for which they are sometimes 

 mistaken, generally with fatal results. 



Stems are stout, smooth, hollow; two to six feet high, 

 streaked with brown and purple; the color more pro- 

 nounced at the junction of stem and branches. Leaves 



139 



Leaf of Water-Hemlock. Ciciiia maculdta 



