UMBELLIFERAE OENANTHE 



651 



Oil tubes solitary 2 Cicuta 



Oil tubes 1-3 3 Shim 



Conium L. Hemlock 



Smooth biennial herbs with spotted stems and pinnately compound leaves; 

 flowers small, white, in compound umbels ; calyx teeth obsolete ; petals small, 

 obcordate or entire ; fruit glabrous, somewhat flattened laterally ; carpels wavy- 

 ribbed; oil tubes none, two species, one in Europe and Asia, the other African, 

 deadly poisonous. Plant well known to the ancients. 



Conium maculatum, L. 



An erect, branching, smooth herb, with spotted stem and pinnately decom- 

 pound leaves ; flowers small, white, in compound umbels ; calyx teeth obsolete, 

 petals white ; fruit smooth, ovate, flattened, with prominent wavy ribs ; oil tubes 

 absent. 



Distribution. In waste places, Canada to Indiana, California, Utah and 

 Mexico. Native to Europe. 



Poisonous properties. The plant is very poisonous. It was used by the 

 ancients to poison criminals condemned to death, and it is said that Socrates 

 was poisoned by it. The plant is avoided by stock because of its strong odor, 

 but the dried plants are not so poisonous. The alkaloid coniin C g H l7 N is de- 

 rived from it. Coniin is volatile in vapor of alcohol or water, and somewhat 

 volatile at ordinary temperatures. It has an alkaline reaction and burning taste 

 and causes dilation of the pupil. Two other principal alkaloids occur, namely : 

 conicein C H,,N said to be 18 times more poisonous than coniin; conydrin 



o lO 



C g H 17 NO, pseudoconydrin C g H 17 NO and methylaconiin C^H^N occur in 

 small amounts. The percent of coniin in fresh leaves is 0.095: the ripe seed 

 contains 0.7 percent. 



Mr. Chesnut says : Recent cases of poisoning have arisen accidentally from 

 eating the seed for that of anise, the leaves for parsley, or the roots for par- 

 snips; also from blowing whistles made from the hollow stems. It has recently- 

 been shown that some of the anise seed in both foreign and domestic markets 

 is contaminated with hemlock seeds, but it is not known whether serious con- 

 sequences have resulted therefrom. 



Symptoms. The symptoms in man are due to a general and gradual weak- 

 ening of muscular power. The power of sight is often lost, but the mind usual- 

 ly remains clear until death ensues, as it soon does from the gradual paralysis 

 of the lungs. The poisoning differs from that of the Water Hemlock (Cicuta 

 maculata} in the absence of convulsions. Many domestic animals have been 

 killed by eating the plant, the prominent symptoms described for cows being 

 the loss of appetite, salivation, bloating, much bodily pain, loss of muscular 

 power and rapid, feeble pulse. 



This plant, though called hemlock, should not be confused with the hemlock 

 tree, which belongs to the family Coniferae. It paralyses the ends of the motor 

 nerves, then trunks and lastly the motor center itself. Respiration is quickened 

 and pupils contracted. The fatal dose according to Blyth is 2.3 grains. 



2. Cicuta L. Water-Hemlock. 



Tall, smooth, erect perennial herbs with pinnate or pinnately compound 

 leaves and serrate leaflets; umbels terminal; flowers white; calyx teeth acute; 



