PIMPINELLA. 



Spreng. in R. and S. vi. 407. "Avio-ov, Dioscorides Egypt, 

 the island of Scio, the Levant. (Anise.) 



Stem smooth, erect, branched. Radical leaves roundish, heart- 

 shaped, lobed, cut-serrated; cauline biternate with linear-lanceolate rather 

 cuneate acuminate segments. Umbels on long stalks, 9-10-rayed, naked j 

 partial ones with a few subulate reflexed bracts. Flowers white. 

 Styles subulate, spreading, long, capitate. Fruit ovate, 1^ line long, 

 dull brown, slightly downy, not at all shining, with the ridges equi- 

 distant, elevated, sometimes rather wavy, paler than the channels. Com- 

 missure broad and flat. The officinal preparations, especially the aqua 

 anisi, are employed to relieve flatulence, colicky pains, especially of 

 children. Nurses sometimes take it to promote the secretion of milk. 

 It has also been used in pulmonary affections. Its effects are con- 

 dimentary, stimulant and carminative. Pereira. 



(ENANTHE. 



Calyx permanent, growing rather larger after flowering. Pe- 

 tals obovate, emarginate with an inflexed lobe. Disk conical. 

 Fruit cylindrical ovate, surmounted by long erect styles. Half- 

 fruits with 5 convex obtuse ridges, of which the marginal ones 

 are a little the broadest ; channels with single vittae. Usually 

 aquatic herbs. Umbels compound. Common involucre va- 

 riable, often wanting ; partial many-leaved. Flowers of the ray 

 long-stalked, abortive ; of the disk sessile or nearly so and fer- 

 tile. Petals white. 



85. OS. crocata Linn. sp. 365. DC. prodr.iv. 138. Eng. 

 Bot. t. 2313. S. and C. i. t. 35. Smith. Eng. fl. ii. 71. 

 Ditches, banks of rivers, wet places, common in the west of 

 Europe. (Dead-tongue, Hemlock-dropwort.) 



Root of many fleshy knobs, abounding with an orange- coloured, fetid, 

 very poisonous juice, which also exudes less plentifully from all parts 

 of the herb, when wounded. Stem from 2 to 5 feet high, much 

 branched, somewhat forked, leafy, round, furrowed, hollow. Leaves 

 of a dark shining green, doubly pinnate, with generally opposite, 

 stalked, wedge-shaped, variously and deeply cut leaflets ; those of the 

 lowermost leaves rather the broadest; all veiny and smooth. Umbels 

 large, terminal, stalked, convex, of many general rays, and still more 

 copious partial ones. General as well as partial bracts various in 

 number and shape, either linear and undivided, or dilated and partially 

 leafy or almost obliterated. Flowers white, or tinged with purple, 

 very numerous and crowded, slightly radiant ; the outer stalked and 

 barren, the central sessile and fertile. Fruit very pale brown, 2 lines 

 long, nearly cylindrical ; calyx teeth very small, persistent, incurved; 

 styles brownish purple, straight, permanent, about half the length of 

 the fruit, or rather shorter ; ridges convex, the dorsal ones very nar- 

 row, the lateral ones very broad. A dangerously poisonous plant, 

 the cause of many fatal accidents. Dr. Christison considers it the most 

 energetic of the narcotico-acrid apiaceae. It is difficult to conceive how 

 it should be mistaken for hemlock by herb gatherers, as Godefroi asserts. 

 The roots are usually the part eaten by those^vho fall victims to it, 

 39 D 4 



