152 



CLASS PENTANDRIA. 



Suainted the people with the poisonous qualities of the plant, and 

 lus enabled them to provide against the danger by fencing in the 

 marsh. The poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) has a peculiarly- 

 unpleasant, nauseous smell; its stalk is large and spotted, from 

 whence its specific name maculatum,, which signifies spotted. This 

 plant is supposed to be the poison so fatally administered by the 

 Athenians to Socrates and Phocion. 



The umbellate plants which grow on dry ground are aromatic; as 

 dill, and fennel ; those which grow in wet places, or the aquatic 

 species, are among the most deadly poisons ; as water parsnip, &c. 

 Plants of this family are not in general so beautiful to the sight, nor 

 so interesting, as objects of botanical analysis, as many others.* 



In order to assist you in analyzing plants of this family, we will il- 

 lustrate their botanical characters by a sketch of the coriander. 



1. Calyx, a; this is of that kind called an involucrum ; the leaves 

 which you see at the foot of the universal umbel, form what is calltd 

 the general involucrum ; the leaves which are at the foot of the par- 

 tial umbel, form a partial involucrum. Both of these involucrums 

 are pinnatijid, or have the leaves divided. 



2. Corolla, h; this is represented as magnified ; you can see that it 

 has five petals, inflected or bent inwards. 



3. Stamens, five, anthers somewhat divided. 



4. Pistils, two, reflexed or bent back, as may be seen on the seed 

 c, where the stigmas are permanent. 



5. Pericarp, is wanting in all umbellate plants. 



6. Seed, c, is round, with its two styles at the summit ; it consists 

 of two carpels. 



* Botanists in general shrink from the study of the UmbelliferaB ; nor have these 

 plants much beauty in the eyes of amateurs ; but they will repay the trouble of a care- 

 ful observation. The late M. Cusson of Montpelier bestowed more pains upon them 

 than any other botanist has ever done ; but the world has, as yet, been favoured with 

 only a part of his remarks. His labours met with a most ungrateful cheek, in the uH' 

 kindness and mortifying stupidity of his wife, who, in his absence from home, is re- 

 corded to have destroyed his whole herbarium, scraping off the dried specimens for the 

 sake of the paper on which they were pasted !— " Sir James Edward Smith's Intro- 

 duction to Botany." 



What is said of the poison hemlock 7— Describe Fig. 128. 



