CONIUM. HEMLOCK. 235 



toothed. Color, when dry, grayish-green. Odor dis- 

 agreeable (mousey). Taste salty, bitter, and acrid. 



The fruit is a cremocarp, about 3 mm. long, broadly 

 ovate, laterally compressed, the mericarps usually sepa- 

 rate, slightly curved, dorsally compressed, bearing five 

 slightly wavy ridges; intermediate spaces wrinkled, 

 faces grooved, oil tubes absent. Color gray or green, 

 odor and taste faint. The disagreeable mousey odor is 

 developed by trituration. 



Histology. — The Leaf. — A single layer of smooth polyg- 



FlG. 67. — CONIUM. 



Cross-section of mericarp of Conium: a, Seed portion; e, epi- 

 dermis; m. fruit scale; t, t', conine layer containing alkaloid; v, vas- 

 cular bundle; o, outer surface of pericarp; c, central surface; b, bundle 

 in albumen (Fluckiger). 



onal cells forms the epidermis. The outer walls of these 

 epidermal cells are thickened. A single row of palisade 

 cells is found. Beneath these, and extending to the 

 under epidermis, is the usual loose round-celled leaf 

 parenchyma. The veins each contain a single fibro- 

 vascular bundle, accompanied by a few resin ducts, 

 and protected by the collenchymatic tissue, to which the 



