WATER-HEMLOCK. 403 



this plant, which has hollow stems. It is doubtful whether our 

 Water-Hemlock or the Spotted Hemlock is the Cicuta of Pliny, 

 who evidently intends by that name the xumov of the Greeks, and 

 the Athenian state-poison *. Haller is of opinion that this poi- 

 son was obtained from our Cicuta virosa, and not from Conium 

 maculatum. But if the account of the death of Socrates, in 

 the Phcedon of Plato, be a correct and not an embellished or fic- 

 titious narrative, the same objection applies to one as to the other. 

 It is astonishing that the Water-Hemlock should be associated by 

 some of the old botanists with Sium, or Water- Par snep, and 

 called by Gerard "long-leaved Water-cresses," without any allu- 

 sion to its poisonous properties. This plant is generally in- 

 tended by the old authors when they use the term Cicuta, but 

 the Spotted Hemlock (Conium maculatum) was also called 

 Cicuta, and there is reason to fear that they have sometimes 

 been confounded -f. Wepfer J, indeed, confounds the Water- 

 Dropwort, described in the preceding article, with the presents 

 species ; and it is not improbable, that the same error has been 

 committed by others who speak of the roots being eaten in 

 mistake for parsneps, unless, indeed, we ascribe to those who 

 partook of them more than a common share of ignorance, — 

 the large, annular, hollow root having very little resemblance to 

 a parsnep. 



Qualities, &c. — The root, wounded in spring, pours forth a 

 yellowish juice, which is principally contained in the vessels of 

 the cortical part. It has a heavy narcotic odour, and an acrid, 

 hot taste. The lower leaves are said to have the same proper- 

 ties in a less degree. The foliage, when bruised, smells like 

 celery, but is more pungent, and its flavour has been compared 

 to that of parsley. Wepfer § has remarked on the wounded 

 parts of the main stalk small concretions of a blueish trans- 

 parent viscous substance, of a slightly acrid nature. Gadd || 

 states, that when the plant vegetates in stagnant pools, a liquid 



* " Cicuta quoque venenum est publica Atheniensium poena invisa." 

 Plin. Hist. lib. xxvi. c. 13. The description given by Dioscorides of the 

 xuvuov is perhaps more accordant with the Cicuta than with the Conium. 



■f The (Enanthe Phellandrium (Phellandrium aquaticum, Linn.) has also 

 been called Water-Hemlock, and fine -leaved Water-Hemlock. 



X Cicutse aquaticae Historia et noxae. Basil. 1679. 



§ Lib. cit, ({ Lib. et loc. cit. 



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