and its Alkaloid Conia. A401 
Latin coriandrum, cannot be held to designate with any accuracy 
the leaes ofour conium ; and still less will the radia concava of 
Purny, the es@a xoirn nar 8 Baber of Dioscor1pEes, designate its 
root, which is perfectly solid, and even at the present season 
[December], when the plant is young, very commonly penetrates 
twelve or fifteen inches into the soil. Of the poisonous Umbel- 
liferee, our Cicuta virosa, or water-hemlock, comes nearer the an- 
cient description than any other; and, in reference to the use 
alleged to have been made of the ancient Kaveaoy, it has the far- 
ther advantage of being generally considered a much more active 
poison than the common hemlock. 
It may be right to add, however, that the Coniwm maculatum 
of modern botanists has been ascertained by Dr SzerHorPe to 
grow abundantly in different parts of Greece. This eminent 
authority states he found it “ on rubbish-heaps near Constanti- 
nople: not unfrequently in the Pelopponesus ; and most abun- 
dantly between Athens and Megara.”* It would have been very 
extraordinary if this species had not been a common plant in 
Greece, considering that it is abundant in every country in 
Europe. But I do not see how such a circumstance should be 
considered any proof that the ancient Ka»eoy was our spotted hem- 
lock, although some authors seem to look upon it as ample evi- 
dence of their identity. It is not unworthy of remark, that the 
ancient term has been apparently lost in the modern Greek lan- 
guage, and that it bears no relation whatever to the modern 
name Peouoxoeror, now applied, according to Sibthorpe, to the spot- 
ted hemlock. 
The ancient accounts of the properties of Kavé:oy as a poison 
* Tn ruderatis prope Byzantium. In Pelopponeso haud infrequens. Copiosissime inter 
Athenas et Megaram.—Sibthorpe Flora Greeca, i. 187. 
+ Ce qui prouve que c’était la cigué dont les Athéniens se servaient pour faire périr 
certains personnages, et dont Socrate mourut. II ne peut pas y avoir le moindre doute 4 
ce sujet, car la cigué vireuse ne se trouve pas dans ce pays, non plus que, &c. Meérat et 
Delens. Dict. de Matiére Méd. ii. 385. 
