88 POISONOUS PLANTS 



Stamens up to the top. The honey-disk is 

 developed out of the top of the ovary. 



When the petals and stamens have fallen off, the 

 inferior ovary ripens into a fruit (Fig. 5).^ This 

 now develops ridges (Figs. 6-10 a). It then splits 

 in half, that is to say the two carpels separate and 

 remain suspended on a V or Y shaped support 

 (Fig. 7). They finally break away and fall to the 

 ground. Each half (Figs. 7-9) contains one seed 

 (Fig. 11) full of endosperm, in which lies buried a 

 minute embryo (Fig. \\ a, b). 



This plant is considered to be less active than 

 the hemlock, nevertheless it has occasioned more 

 accidents ; since, so often growing in gardens, its 

 leaves have been taken for parsley and eaten by 

 mistake. 



Animals refuse it, and birds which have eaten it 

 have died. 



It can be distinguished from parsley not merely 

 by the want of the familiar odour of that plant, 

 but by the dark colour of the stem, especially the 

 lower part, and by its disagreeable smell when 

 bruised. Moreover, the colour of the flowers of 

 parsley are yellow, while those of the fool's 



1 The curved styles are not drawn accurately, they should 

 both arise from the middle (just below the num. 5), and the 

 disks should be represented as two nearly flat semi-circular 

 cushions, extending outwards right and left, to the margins 

 of the ovary. 



