ADDITIONAL SPECIES. 277 



shaped, nearly smooth, as well as their footstalks ; calyx-leaves 

 obtuse ; lateral petals with a hairy central line. Sweet Violet. 



Hob. Banks of the Eye about half a mile above Nether- 

 byres'-house, and apparently as perfectly native to the 

 spot as F. canina, beside which it was growing, Rev. A. 

 Baird. Near Chillingham, Mrs Langhorne. It is some- 

 times to be found naturalized at the sides of hedges in 

 the vicinity of villages. April. Ij. 



" The sun was shining through a vernal shower ; 



The garden smiled, array'd in fresher green ; 

 With richer fragrance breathed the simple flower, 



That meekly veil'd its charms and bloom'd serene ; 



I stoopM, and fondly look'd the leaves between, 

 Resolved the bashful beauty's haunt to find ; 



With slender stalk and modest humble mein, 

 I saw the floweret with its head reclined, 



Although in robes of richest hue array'd, 

 The vulgar caze it seem'd to hold in scorn ; 



With drooping head upon a green leaf laid, 

 It breathed rich odours in the breeze of morn." 



The root is emetic ; the flowers and seeds are said to be mild 

 laxatives. The petals give their colour freely to water, 

 and afford a delicate and useful test of the presence of 

 uncombined acids or alkalies, the former changing its blue 

 to a red, and the latter to a green colour. 



CICUTA. 



1. C. virosa, smooth; stem 2 or 3 feet high, hollow, furrowed; 

 leaves twice ternate, the leaflets linear-lanceolate, decurrent, ser- 

 rated ; umbels large, stalked ; flowers white. Water Hemlock. 



Hob. Primside Loch, Berwickshire, Mr R. D. Thomson. 

 Aug. T/. 



A very energetic poison, producing symptoms which resem- 

 ble considerably those produced by the hydrocyanic acid. 

 Many instances are recorded in which the roots, mistaken for 

 parsnips, have been eaten with a fatal result. The plant is 

 equally deadly to cattle of all kinds, except to the goat, which 

 is said to eat it with impunity. LINNAEUS, in his Flora 

 Lap. p. ^G ) gives an account of a disease which every 

 spring, in the neighbourhood of Tornoa, carried off some- 

 times not less than an hundred oxen, and which he traced 

 to the operation of this herb. 



