WHITE AND GREENISH WILD FLOWERS 



Hercules who, according to Pliny, used it in medicine. 

 The immense hollow stalk, which is grooved, woolly 

 and very stout, grows from four to eight feet high, 

 and at the base it is often two inches in diameter. The 

 large, rather thin, but coarse compound leaf has three 

 deeply lobed and irregularly notched and toothed, 

 broad, pointed-oval leaflets that are very hairy on the 

 under side, and quite smooth above. The leaf is set 

 on short, widely winged stems that clasp the stalk. 

 The small, white, five-petalled flowers are gathered 

 in an extensive, wide-spreading, flat-topped disk or 

 umbel which is sometimes a foot or more broad. The 

 outer blossoms are larger than the inner ones and 

 their petals are deeply notched and heart-shaped. 

 The Cow Parsnip is rank and coarse, and grows with 

 a tropical luxuriance, in low, moist grounds, where 

 its great white, floral heads are raised like a platter 

 during June and July. The plant has a disagreeable 

 odour, and the foliage and roots produce redness and 

 inflammation when applied to the skin. The acrid 

 roots have been used as a remedy in epileptic cases 

 and also as a stimulant. The roots are also said to 

 have been roasted and used as a food by the Canadian 

 Indians, who also ate the raw leaf stems, which they 

 called Indian Rhubarb. The Parsnip River was so 

 named because of the abundance of these plants along 

 its banks. The Cow Parsnip is the only important 

 one of its genus growing in North America. 

 It is found from Labrador and Newfoundland 

 to Alaska, south to North Carolina, Missouri, 



282 



