HEMLOCK 185 



wind, and are when ripe but slightly attached, so that a gust of wind 

 blows them away, or they are dispersed by a jerk from passing animals. 



Hemlock is a sand-loving plant, growing in sand soil, or the allu- 

 vium with some humus of a stream or river. 



It is attacked by two microscopic fungi, Puccinia bullata and 

 Plasmopora nivea. 



The moths the Sword-grass (Calocampa exoleta\ Depressaria 

 alstrcemeriana feed on Hemlock. 



Conium, Theophrastus, is from the Greek for hemlock. The second 

 Latin name indicates the spotted stem. It is called Bad Man's Oat- 

 meal, Herb Bennet, Bunk, Cambuck, Caxes, Heck-how, Hemlock, 

 Humlock, Humly, Heck, Kex, Kelk, Kous, Keish, Kewse, St. Bennet's 

 Herb, Wode Whistle. Cambuck is a name for the dry stalks. 



" Some horses were of the brume cow frainit, 



And some of the green bay tree, 

 But mine was made of a hemlock schaw, 

 And a stout stallion was he." 



Shakespeare speaks of the root of the Hemlock, " digged i' the 

 dark", in connection with witches and witchcraft. In the Masque oj 

 Queens Ben Jonson speaks of it as a baleful draught. 



It is poisonous, and was lately included in the British Pharma- 

 copoeia. Sheep are said to eat it, but cattle refuse it; when in the 

 dry seasons they are driven to taste it they exhibit symptoms of mad- 

 ness. According to an old botanical writer, Ray, who did much to 

 establish botany as a science in this country, the thrush feeds on the 

 seeds. 



Its action is like that of an opiate and narcotic, used for deadening 

 pain and assisting suppuration. It was regarded as beneficial in cases 

 of scrofula and cancer. A bitter, acrid juice is derived from the stem, 

 and it is harsh to the taste. 



It has the effect of causing giddiness, nausea, headache in some, 

 though it has the opposite effect on others, just as tobacco has. Or, as 

 Lucretius says: 



" Pinguescere s<zpe Cicuta 

 Barbigeros pecudes Jiomim quce est acre venenum " 



" what is one man's meat is another man's poison ", in other words. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



124. Conium maculatum, L. Stem tall, erect, branched, spotted, 

 smooth, hollow, leaves large, smooth, pinnate, flowers white, in uni- 

 lateral partial involucre, with bracts below, carpels ribbed. 



