CONIUM. 



CONIUM. 



Calyx obsolete. Petals obcordate, somewhat emarginate, 

 with a very short inflexed lobe. Fruit compressed at the side, 

 ovate. Half-fruits with 5 prominent equal undulated ridges of 

 which the lateral are on the border. Channels with many striae 

 but no vittae. Biennials. Root fusiform. Stem taper branched. 

 Leaves decompound. Both involucres 3-5-leaved, the partial 

 one halved. Flowers white, all fertile. 



124. C. maculatum Linn. sp. 349. Smith Eng. Fl. ii. 66. 

 DC. prodr.iv. 242. Eng. Bot. 1. 1191. N. and E.pLmed. 

 t. 282. handb. iii. 27. 5. and C. i. t. 13. Pereira in Med. gaz. 

 xix. 763. KUVEIOV Dioscorid. In waste places throughout 

 Europe, the East of Asia ; and the cultivated parts of America 

 (introduced). (Hemlock.) 



Root tap-shaped, whitish, fleshy. Stem from 3 to 5 feet high, erect, 

 round, hollow, glaucous, polished, copiously spotted and dotted with 

 dull purple. Leaves very large and repeatedly compound; leaflets 

 ovate, closely and sharply pinnatifid, with the lower lobes incised, of a 

 deep shining green, on long furrowed footstalks, sheathing at the base. 

 Umbels terminal, very numerous, erect, compound ; all many-rayed and 

 smooth. General bracts ovate, cuspidate, with membranous edges. 

 Flowers numerous, white, all fertile; the outermost very slightly 

 irregular. Fruit 1| line long, ovate, compressed, a pale sage-green; 

 primary ridges elevated, sharp, wavy ; commissure and channels finely 

 wrinkled. A powerfully narcotico-acrid plant, occasioning stupor, 

 delirium, palsy, and asphixia; some authors state that it produces 

 death in the most dreadful convulsions, but this is at variance with the 

 the accounts of Dr. Christison and Mr. Pereira. It is recommended in 

 cancerous and scrophulous disorders, syphilis, dropsy, epilepsy, as an 

 anodyne, &c. &c. It is stated by Aretaeus to be anti-aphrodisiac, by 

 Storck and Bergius to be the reverse. The leaves are the parts usually 

 employed but the preparations from them are frequently inert. This 

 may arise in part from the manner of preparing them or from the time 

 when they have been collected. Fothergill long since stated, what is 

 quite conformable to theory, that Conium was to be obtained in its 

 most active state when the flowers are just past, the fruit forming, and 

 the plant inclining to yellow, and that the quality of that collected 

 when the herbage is strong and succulent is very inferior. Fothergill' *s 

 Works, 266. Mr. Pereira and Dr. Christison recommend an alcoholic 

 tincture of the bruised ripe fruit, instead of the leaves. 



SMYRNIUM. 



Calyx obsolete. Petals lanceolate or elliptical, entire, acumi- 

 nate, inflexed at the point. Fruit contracted at the side, didy- 

 mous. Half fruits almost globose, reniform, with 3 fine pro- 

 minent dorsal ridges, and 2 marginal ones almost obliterated. 

 Channels with many vittae. Seed involute. Upright smooth 

 biennials. Root fleshy. Leaves various. Umbels terminal. In- 

 57 



