HEMLOCK 111 



HEMLOCK FRUITS 



(Fructus Conii) 



Source, &C. The common or spotted hemlock, Corilum 1 macu- 

 latum, Linne (N.O. Umbelliferce), is a biennial plant widely spread 

 throughout temperate Europe and generally distributed over Great 

 Britain. It is distinguished by its smooth hollow stem with purple 

 spots, the general and partial involucres on the inflorescence, its 

 glabrous, decompound leaves and ovoid fruit without vittse but with 

 deeply grooved endosperm (compare also the details given under 

 ' Hemlock Herb ') . This plant was in all probability the one employed 

 by the Greeks in the preparation of poisonous draughts. It was 

 used in Anglo-Saxon medicine, but has latterly lost much of its 

 reputation owing to the uncertain action of its preparations. 

 Researches have indicated the reason of this and suggested a remedy. 



The fruits should be gathered from wild plants when full-grown, 

 but before they ripen that is, before the colour changes from green 

 to yellow and thoroughly dried ; if carefully preserved quite dry 

 they will long retain their activity unimpaired. 



Description. Hemlock fruits, gathered when unripe, possess, 

 after drying, a distinct greenish grey colour, which changes by long 

 keeping to yellowish grey. They are small (about 3 mm. long), 

 broadly ovoid and slightly compressed laterally. They are crowned 

 with small stylopods bearing the remains of the stigmas. In the 

 commercial drug the mericarps are usually separate and freed from 

 the stalks. Each mericarp is glabrous and exhibits five paler sharply 

 prominent primary ridges, which, from the presence of small pro- 

 tuberances, are irregularly crenate and wavy, a character not equally 

 well shown by all fruits, and more conspicuous in the fresh than in 

 the dried. Cut transversely and examined with a strong lens, the 

 endosperm exhibits a deep furrow or groove on its commissural 

 surface (fig. 61, C). This furrow, being filled with the tissue of the 

 pericarp, is not visible on the commissural surface of the mericarp, 

 but only on the transverse section ; its presence should be carefully 

 noted, as it indicates that the fruits are derived from a plant belonging 

 to the suborder Campylospermece, and distinguishes them at once 

 from anise, fennel, &c., that have an endosperm nearly flat on its 

 commissural surface (suborder Orthospermece) , and from coriander 

 and other fruits that have an endosperm strongly curved in both 

 radial and transverse section (suborder Coslospermece). The pericarp 

 contains no vittse, and this is also an important character, but one 



1 This pronunciation, though well established, is not strictly correct. The word 

 is derived from the Greek K&VSIOV, hemlock, and should be pronounced Conium. 



