652 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



fruit ovate or oblong with solitary conspicuous oil tubes; corky ribs, the lateral 

 ones strong; marsh herbs. Eight species, of north temperate regions. The 

 European C. virosa is deadly poisonous. Hundreds of people have been poisoned 

 in Europe. It acts much like our native cowbane, the symptoms being violent 

 gastro-enteritis, dizziness, trembling, suggestive of hydrophobia, prostration, par- 

 alysis and convulsions. 



Cicuta maculata L. Cowbane 



A smooth marsh perennial from 2-5 feet tall, and with fasicled fusiform 

 roots ; leaves pinnately compound 2 or 3 times pinnate, long petioled ; the coarsely 

 serrate leaflets lanceolate to oblong lanceolate; stalks of the umbellets numerous 

 and unequal; flowers white, fruit broadly ovate to oval, small, about \ l /2 inches 

 long. 



Distribution. Grows in marshes and low grounds in the Dakotas, Nebraska, 

 the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana to the Uintahs, 

 east of New Brunswick and Florida. 



Poisonous properties. The European C. virosa contains coniin C g H 1T N 

 found also in Conium maculatum, and the bitter principle cicutoxin, an amor- 

 phous, resinous substance with a disagreeable taste. The poison resides in the 

 root, stem, and leaves, but more particularly in the root. It seems to occur in 

 an oily aromatic fluid. 



Fig. 371. Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata), 

 showing section of spindle-shaped roots and lower 

 stem, the leaves, flowers, and fruit, one-half nat- 

 ural size; also fruit and cross section of seed, en- 

 larged five times. A very poisonous plant. (U. S. 

 Dept. Agr.) 



