7 nesta ileeiaaeaaaeeaenmen .t ee eR a 
OENANTHE crocaTa. = ORD.Vi Unbellate:. weer 
feet in height. Leaves simply and doubly pinnated; smaller pine: 
wedge-shaped, smooth, streaked, jagged at the edges: larger pinne 
three-lobed, indented, resembling those of smallage.. Flowers in: 
umbels, which are terminal, spreading, and almost globular. Gene- 
ral involucrum none. Partiai involucrum composed of many small. 
leaves.. Calyx permanent, five-toothed. Florets unequal, those 
at the circumference often sterile. Petals five, heart-shaped, broad, 
bent inwards, emarginated. Filaments five, slender, tapering, 
twice the length of the petals. Anthera oblong, brown. Germen 
beneath the corolla. Styles two, awl-shaped, reddish, permanent. 
Stigmata pointed. Fruit oblong, striated, divisible into two parts 
or seeds, which are convex on one side, and flat on the other. 
It grows on the banks of rivers, and in ditches, flowering in June- 
and July. 
We have selected this plant, to record it as a powerful poison, 
_ rather than as a medicine. Its root, which is not unpleasant to the 
taste, is, by Dr. Poultney, esteemed to be the most deleterious of 
all the vegetables which this country produces. 
Mr. Howell, surgeon at Haverfordwest, relates, that “ eleven 
« French prisoners had the liberty of walking in and about the 
“ town of Pembroke; three-of them, being in the fields a little 
“ before noon, dug up a large quantity of this plant, which they 
* took to be wild celery, to eat with their bread and butter for 
“dinner. After washing it, they all three ate or rather tasted of the 
* roots. As they were entering the town, without any previous 
* notice of sickness at the stomach, or disorder in the head, one cf 
« them was seized with convulsions. The other two ran home, and 
“ sent asurgeon to him. The surgeon endeavoured first to bleed, 
« and then to vomit him: but those endeavours were fruitless; and. 
‘« he died presently. Ignorant of the cause of their comrade’s death, . 
« and of their own danger, they gave of these roots to the other 
“eight prisoners, who all ate some of them with their dinner.. 
« A few minutes afterwards the remaining two, who gathered the: 
“ plants, were seized in the same manner.as the firsi; of which one 
No. 8. "2. 
