PHELLANDRIUM AQUATICUM. ~ ORD. VI. Umbellate. 91 
and forming a flat uniform surface. Individual florets unequal, 
smaller at the centre. Petals five, heart-shaped, bent inwards, 
Filaments five, capillary, longer than the petals. Anthea roundish, 
Germen ovate. Styles two, tapering, upright, permanent. Stig-' 
mata blunt. Fruit ovate, smooth, divisible into two parts or seeds, 
It grows in rivers, ditches, and pools, flowering in June and 
July. 
This plant is generally supposed to possess deleterious qualities. 
Horses, on eating it, are said to become paralytic; but this effect . 
should not be ascribed to the Phellandrium, but to an insect which 
resides within its stalks, viz: the Curculio paraplecticus. 
The seeds of the plant, however, according to Dr. Lange,* when 
taken in large doses, produce a remarkable sensation of weight in 
the head, accompanied with giddiness, intoxication, &c. and there- 
fore may be deemed capable of proving an active medicine. . They | 
are oblong, striated, of a greenish yellow, about the size of those 
of dill, and manifesting an aromatic acrid taste, approaching nearly 
to that of the seeds of fov age. Distilled with water they yield an 
essential oil, of a pale yellow colour, and of a strong penetrating 
smell. One pound of the seeds affords an ounce of watery extract, 
but nearly double this quantity of spirituous extract, of which 
more than three drams consists of resin.” 
Pliny ‘* states the seeds of Phellandrium to be an efficacious 
medicine in calculous complaints, and disorders of the bladder; and — 
in this opinion he is followed by Dodonzus,* who mentions them 
also as possessing diuretic and emmenagogue powers. But on 
these authorities little reliance is to be placed; so that the efficacy 
of this plant rests chiefly on the testimonies of Ernstingius and 
Lange, by whom various cases of its successful use are published, 
especially in wounds and inveterate ulcers of different kinds, and 
* See Rem. Bruns, 235. ne 
> Ernstingius, lc. $- f60-47. 212 
4 Pempt. 591. 
