126 TSUGA, OR HEMLOCK SPRUCE FIRS 



purchase of more poison drug from the innermost 

 recesses of his private purse I 



Phocion, the Athenian general, was another of 

 these inconsiderately treated victims of a State's 

 parsimony. He complained bitterly — and not with- 

 out good reason, we think — that he was called upon 

 to subscribe the money from his personal income 

 upon " extras," for the purpose of enabling the 

 executioner to brew the dose in proportions strong 

 enough to accomplish its purpose. 



But, as we have said, this graceful tree, known as 

 the Hemlock Spruce, in our midst, though it may 

 have contrived a nominal connection with the poison- 

 ous plant, is quite absolved from any participation 

 in these scenes described. 



The Hemlock plant (Conium Maculatum) is a 

 smooth, purple-spotted, hollow-stemmed biennial, 

 which is practically full of poison in root, seed, stem, 

 and leaf, and which grows in hedgerow and ditch, — 

 a plant that is credited with killing children who 

 partake of it in mistake for parsnips ; and violently 

 disagreeing with others who, lured on by the joys 

 of musical delight, attempt the use of its hollow stem 

 for penny-whistle purposes. And while on the 

 subject, let it not be forgotten by experimentalists 

 in these directions, and also by the guardians of flocks 

 and herds, that there are other Hemlocks — for instance, 

 the Water Hemlock (CEnanthe Crocata) — of um- 

 belliferous affinity and like evil reputation, deservedly 

 credited upon flagrante-delicto evidences, of distri- 

 buting, with fatal results, its poisonous properties 

 to man and beast. The Hemlock Spruce, on the 

 other hand, is a dignified tree, with a grave and 

 massive squareness of outline, with a record behind 

 free and flawless of crime, that occupies frontal 

 positions on many a lawn and pleasure-ground ; and, 

 moreover, is a tree which no one has ever repented 



