UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 69 



****** fi-ait ahurt and thick, not prickly nor beaked ; somewhat jiatlened. 



30. Hemlock (Connim). 



Common Hemlock (C. niaculdtum). — Stem smooth, spotted; leaves 

 thrice pinnate; leaflets lanceolate, pinnatifid, with acute, sometimes cleft, 

 segments. Plant biennial. The tall dark-leaved Hemlock, with its stem of 

 purplish-brown, spotted and striped with purple, is not uncommon on waste 

 places, and about ruins and walls. The hollow stem is two or three feet 

 high, much branched at the upper part, and bearing its umbels of white 

 flowers in June and July. Although the foliage is of a dull green, yet it 

 is remarkably elegant in form; and in some places the plant grows to a 

 great size. When summer is over, its dead stalks rattle in the wind. 

 Country people call them Kecksies ; and the Hemlock had the old name of 

 Kex. In an old writer, we find one saying, " I'll make these withered 

 Kexes bear my body." The Avord Kick or Kex seems now entirely applied 

 to the dried stalks. It is so in Kent ; and Clare, who well knew all the 

 common names of flowers in Northamptonshire, describing the summer 

 scene by a river's side, says — 



" Some went searching by the wood, As the cart-rut rippled down 



Peeping 'neath the waving thorn, Witli the burden of the rain, 



Where the pouch-lipp'd cuckoo-bud Boys came drabbling from the town, 



From its snug retreat was torn ; Glad to meet their sports again ; 



Where the ragged-robin stood Stopping up their mimic rills 



With its piped stem streak'd with jet ; Till they forced their watery bound 



And the crow flowers, golden-hued, Then the Keck-made water-mills 



Careless plenty easier met. In the current Avhisk'd around." 



Sheep are said to be the only domestic animals which will feed on the 

 Hemlock ; nor do many insects choose its foliage for their food, though 

 the song-thrush will make a meal of its seeds. To the skilful physician the 

 plant aff"ords a valuable means of alleviating human suflfering; and the 

 extract made from it is a sedative and alterative medicine. Considerable 

 care is requisite in the preparation of the Hemlock for medicinal purposes ; 

 and, like all plants used as remedial agents, it is important that it should 

 1)0 gathered at the proper season. Vegetable physiologists have fully" 

 ascertained that during the growth of a plant remarkable changes occur 

 in succession, both in its chemical composition and sensible qualities. The 

 meadow saffron (Cdlchicum aidumndle) may be instanced as a plant in which 

 the properties are entirely changed during the progress of its development. 

 The roots of valerian are of little worth unless taken from the ground in the 

 autumnal season ; and the foxglove needs, in order that it may retain its 

 properties, to be gathered just as it is coming into flower. The many who 

 seek relief from the medicine afforded by the root of the dandelion would do 

 well to lay in their store during the spring, as it is believed to be stronger in 

 April than in any succeeding month, though at no season of the year are the 

 properties of this root wholly inert. The root of henbane has scarcely any 

 of its powers developed in spidng, and if gathered just as the young shoots 

 were emerging from the soil would be almost useless in medicine, thousjh it 



