PENTANDRIA. /3 



ORDER 2. 



WATER-HEMLOCK is found in ditches and digysia. 

 on the margins of rivers, always under water, when Two Pistilla 

 young, in which situation horned cattle sometimes 

 eat it, and are poisoned ; but when they can discrimi- 

 nate this plant from other herbage they reject it. 

 Linnaeus and Stillingfleet are of opinion, that cows 

 only eat it when under water, because they cannot 

 smell it, and when summer advances and dries up the 

 ground, they are very careful not to touch it. In 

 Lapland, when Linnaeus was making a botanical tour 

 through that country, a fatal disease prevailed amongst 

 the cattle at Tornea, the cause of which was wholly- 

 unknown to the farmers. ' e When I arrived, says he, 

 at Tornea the inhabitants complained of a terrible 

 disease that raged among the horned cattle ; which 

 upon being let into the pastures in the spring, died by 

 hundreds. They desired that I would consider this 

 affair, and give my advice what was to be done in 

 order to put a stop to this evil." Linnaeus, after con- 

 sidering the subject with minute attention, discovered 

 the disease to be produced by this water-hemlock be- 

 ing eaten in the marshy pastures in its young state 

 under water 5 he therefore recommended the farmers, 

 to carefully eradicate these plants, which might be 

 easily effected, as they grew in marshy grounds, and 

 not at all difficult to find; but if that could not be 

 done, he advised them to keep their cattle on upland 



