UMBELLIFERAE (PARSLEY FAMILY) 



301 



often purple-spotted. Leaves 

 pinnate and thrice divided, the 

 segments finely cut and toothed. 

 Flower clusters terminal, in 

 large, open, compound umbels, 

 composed of many small um- 

 bellets of tiny white flowers, 

 five-petaled, the large umbel 

 and its parts subtended by 

 small, narrow bracts. Fruit 

 consisting of two dry, seed- 

 like carpels, cohering by their 

 inner face, grayish brown when 

 ripe, about one-eighth of an 

 inch long, ovoid, flattened at 

 the side, prominently ribbed, 

 and having on the flattened 

 surface a deep, narrow groove. 

 The whole plant has a very 

 disagreeable "mousy" odor, 

 especially when bruised. 



FIG. 209. Poison Hemlock (Conium 

 maculatum). X J. 



Means of control 



Grub it out, "root and branch," and destroy it. So dangerous 

 a neighbor should never be allowed on any farm land, and in par- 

 ticular the roads of the countryside should be free from its presence. 



WATER HEMLOCK 



Ciciita maculdta, L. 



Other English names : Spotted Cowbane, Beaver Poison, Musquash 

 Root, Muskrat Weed, Death-of-man, Children's Bane. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : June to August. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range : Newfoundland to Manitoba, southward to Florida and New 

 Mexico. 



Habitat : Low grounds ; wet meadows, marshy places, sides of 

 ditches, and ponds. 



