376 CENANTHE. [CLASS V. ORDER ii. 



4. OE. cro'cata^Linn. (Fig. 439.) Hemlock Water Drop-tvort. Root 

 with many fleshy tubers ; leaves bi- or tri-pinnate ; leaflets ovate, 

 wedge-shaped, cut or serrated, those of the upper leaves narrower; 

 general involucre of a few segments, or sometimes wanting. 



English Botany, t. 2313.— English Flora, vol, ii. p. 70. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 131. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 120. 



Moot with numerous fleshy elliptical tubers, mixed with branched 

 fibres. Stem erect, large, stout, smooth, furrowed, hollow, much 

 branched and leafy, from three to five feet high. Leaves alternate, 

 large, smooth, dark green, on short furrowed footstalks, with a broadly 

 dilated sheathing base, bi- or tri-pinnate, leaflets all wedge-shaped, or 

 ovate wedge-shaped, opposite, more or less deeply cut and serrated, with 

 numerous branched veins on the under side, which is rather paler than 

 the upper, the leaflets of the upper leaves narrower. Umbels terminal 

 and lateral, the general of numerous stout angular nearly equal rays, 

 the partial of numerous short unequal crowded ones, the outer longest. 

 General involucre either wanting, or of a few linear segments, partial 

 of numerous linear unequal ones. Floivers white, crowded, ii-regular. 

 Calyx of five short lanceolate teeth, somewhat irregular. Petals 

 obcordate, or obovate, notched with an inflexed point, the outer ones 

 largest. Stamens with long slender filaments and small roundish 

 purple anthers. Styles long, straight, increasing after flowering. 

 Stigma small, obtuse. Disk small, somewhat conical. Fruit ellip- 

 tical, cylindrical, narrower at the lower part, smooth. Carpels with 

 five obtuse pale ridges, the lateral ones rather broader than the others 

 forming the margin. Channels with rather large single vittee. 

 Albumen roundish, somewhat flattened in front. 



Habitat.— Ditches, river sides, and watery places ; frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in July. 



Hemlock Water Drop-wort is one of our most poisonous umbellate 

 plants, and has caused many fatal disasters, by being eaten in mistake 

 instead of Water Parnsnip and other plants. The fleshy roots have 

 not an unpleasant taste, but are most deleterious. It is related by 

 Mr. Howel, surgeon, at Haverfordwest, that " eleven French prisoners 

 had the liberty of walking iu and about the town of Pembroke. Three 

 of them being in the fields a little before noon, dug up a large quantity 

 of this plant, which they took to be wild Celery, to eat with their bread 

 and butter for dinner. After washing it, they all three ate, or rather 

 tasted of the roots. As they were entering the town, without any 

 previous notice of the sickness at the stomach, or disorder in the head, 

 one of them was seized with convulsions ; the other two ran home, and 

 sent a surgeon to him. The surgeon endeavoured first to bleed, and 

 then to vomit him; but those endeavours were fruitless, and he died 

 presently. Ignorant of the cause of their comrade's death, and of 

 their own danger, they gave of these roots to the other eight prisoners, 



