PAKSLEY FAMILY. 153 



Swampy grounds and margins of rivulets : throughout the United States. Fl. July. Fr. 

 September. 



Obs. The mature fruit of this plant has a strong anisate odor. The 

 root is an active poison ; and the lives of children, and others, are often 

 endangered and sometimes destroyed by eating it, in mistake for that 

 of the Sweet Cicely (Osmorhiza langistylis, DC.) an aromatic plant 

 of the same natural family. The herbage is also said to be destructive 

 to cattle, when eaten by them all which goes to show the propriety 

 of possessing sufficient Botanical knowledge to be able to identity the 

 plant and likewise the necessity of extirpating it from all meadows 

 and pastures. 



12. CONT'UM, L. POISON-HEMLOCK. 



[From Koneion, the Greek name of the Hemlock.] 



Fruit ovate, compressed or contracted at the sides. Carpels with 5 

 prominent equal ribs which are undulate-creuulate. when immature, the 

 inner face with a deep narrow groove ; oil-tubes none. Involucre few- 

 leaved. Livolucels dimidiate or one-sided, about 3-leaved. 



1. C. macnla'tum, L. Stem terete, spotted ; leaves tripinnately dis- 

 sected, segments lanceolate, pinnatifid, the lobes acute and often in- 

 cised ; leaflets of the involucels lanceolate, shorter than the umbellets. 

 SPOTTED CONIUM. Common Hemlock. 

 Fr. Cigue ordinaire. Germ. Der Schierling. Span. Ceguda. 



Plant smooth, deep bluish green, and sometimes glaucous. Root biennial, fusiform, 

 v.-hitish and fleshy. Steml-^ (sometimes 6-8) feet high, flstular, branched, some- 

 what sulcate, streaked with green and yellow and often spotted with dark purple. Com- 

 mon petioles dilated, nerved with scarious margins. Petals white. Fruit somewhat gib- 

 bous. Carpels with the ribs wavy, especially while young the faces inclining to separate 

 between the base and apex when mature. 



Waste places : introduced. -Native of Europe. Fl. June -July. Fr. September. 



Obs. This foreigner is partially naturalized in many places, and 

 being a powerful narcotic poison, it ought to be known by every person 

 on whose premises it may occur. The plant when bruised emits a dis- 

 agreeable odor. It is supposed to be the herb with which the ancient 

 Greeks put their philosophers and statesmen to death when they got 

 tired of them. An extract prepared from the plant was formerly used 

 for the treatment of scrofula and malignant tumors, but it is now be- 

 lieved that the only benefit, if any, derived from it, was that of a palli- 

 ative anodyne. 



13. COEIAN'DKUM, Hoffm. CORIANDER. 



[Greek, K&ris, a bug ; the bruised leaves having the odor of a bed-bug.] 



Fruit globose. Carpels cohering, scarcely separating, each with 5 un- 

 dulate depressed primary ribs, of which the lateral ones are placed in 

 front of an accessory margin ; the 4 secondary ribs more prominent and 



