SrECIES OF CICUTA. 5 



cliaraoter of the roots he expressos thns : "Radix multis 

 fibris famlo adhperet." And how pointedly this description 

 exchidos the twofold root-character found in the American 

 species may be seen by reading the paragraph next preceding. 



t 



The subject there is the plant known to us as Si)(W cicvf(v- 

 folinm ; and he not only attributes to that tlie two kinds of 

 roots found in many bog umbellifers, but describes tlie 

 peculiar offices of the accessories/ TabernaMUontanus (loSS) 

 shows the roots of C. cirosa to be altogether fibrous ; Morison 

 (1C99), a specialist in Umbellifene, does not describe their 

 form, but remarks that the root dies when once the plant has 

 matured its fruit. Seeing he does not mention any proliferous 

 method of propagation, he leaves it to be inferred that the 

 plant is no more than an annual or biennial- Philip Miller 

 in the eighth edition of the Dictionary (176S) without 

 describing the form of the roots states that the plant grows 

 only in considerable depth of stagnant water, and implies 

 that it dots not pi'opagate except by seeds. Linnieus gives 

 in the Flora Lapponica a very full account of the plant in 

 general, without naming the root at all ; but in the Flora 

 Siieciea lie tells us that in the early sju-ing of the year 1744, 

 roots of this cowbane were brought to him for identification 

 as being those of a plant which had caused the death of cattle 

 that had eaten them as they lay denudated on a certain shore. 

 He says some of them were planted in the botanic garden, 

 where they freely propagated. And this looks as if the 

 species might be gemmiparous. One of the most satisfactory 



tion on which the Natural System of CIassificati(»n is to be built. It is 

 true they had not come to a due appreciation of the importance of car- 

 pology ; but our fault seems to have become that of carrving carpology 

 to an extreme verging close upon abuse. Were the old ** herbalists" to 

 revisit our sphere, mitrht they not regard U8 as a set of mere //e/ Ixms/s 

 engaged in only half successful efforts to perfect our plaut-ku«»wledge. 



and reduce the vegetable kingdom to order, from dry and lifeless imd 

 oulv frasrmentarv materials ? 



' Radices tenues, nigrse et capillacei veluti filn-^e sunt, qu:e nou modo 

 subsuiit ; sed et caulium geniculis adnascuntur, iis quibus aquis con- 

 duutur aut limo infingnntnr partibus. Dod. (De Sio), Pempt. 578. 



