CLASSY. ORDER II.] CICUTA. 369 



GENUS LIX. CICU'TA. LINN. Cowbane. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx margin of five teeth, leafy. Petals obcordate, 

 with an indexed point. Fruit roundish, laterally compressed. 

 Carpels with five nearly plain ridges, the lateral ones forming the 

 margins. Channels with single rittte, which are more prominent 

 in the ripe fruit than the ridges. Albumen roundish. General 

 involucre none, or of few segments ; partial of numerous linear 

 segments. Name Quasi ccecuta, blind ; because it destroys the 

 sight of those who use it. Cicuta was a term used by the Latins 

 for the internode or the space between two joints of a reed ; or 

 the hollow stem of any plant which was used by their shepherds 

 for making their rural pipes, and the stem of this plant has the 

 hollow internode. Virgil says, " Est mihi disparibus septem con- 

 juncta fistula." 



1 . C. viro^sa, Linn. (Fig. 483.) Water Hemlock, or Cowbane. Root 

 with thread-like fibres; leaves tri-pinnate; leaflets lanceolate, acutely 

 serrated, decurrent. 



English Botany, t. 479. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 62. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 127. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 125. 



Root of numerous long branched thread-like fibres, from the large 

 swollen base of the hollow stem, which is stout, round, smooth, 

 furrowed, hollow, and divided by transverse partitions at the axis of 

 the branches into large long cells, much branched above and leafy. 

 Leaves bi- or tri-pinnate, smooth, of a bright green, on long stout hollow 

 striated footstalks, with a long dilated sheathing base, secondary foot- 

 stalks opposite, in about four pairs of the lower leaves, and a terminal 

 one, the upper ones less numerous; tertiary footstalks very short, and 

 bearing two or three leaflets, which are lanceolate, with deep acute 

 irregular serratures, margins decurrent at the base, and the two or 

 three leaflets frequently appear as one by the union of the bases, the 

 leaflets of the upper leaves very narrow, almost linear. Umbels 

 numerous, terminal and lateral, the general of numerous long slender 

 angular somewhat irregular rays, partial of numerous crowded short 

 irregular ones. General involucre wanting, or of a few narrow seg- 

 ments, partial of numerous linear spreading segments of irregular 

 lengths. Flowers white, crowded, nearly regular. Calyx margin of 

 five broadish spreading leafy teeth. Petals inversely heart-shaped, 

 rolled inwards, having a mid-rib and an obtuse indexed point, about 

 half as long as the petal. Stamens on slender filaments, longer than 

 the petals, with ovate anthers of two swollen cells, frequently purplish. 

 Styles as long as the fruit, recurved. Stigmas small, globose. Disk 

 small, somewhat conical. Fruit small, roundish, the sides somewhat 



