416 CONIUM. [CLASS V. ORDER n. 



merous long slender nearly equal striated rays, the partial of numerous 

 short unequal ones. General involucre of several ovate-lanceolate 

 segments, with long slender points, the partial of three similar seg- 

 ments, reflexed on the outer side of the umbels. Floivers numerous, 

 white, nearly regular. Calyx an obsolete margin. Petals oheordate, 

 with a very small inflexed point, the outer ones of the outer flowers 

 somewhat larger than the others. Sta^nens with slendev Jilaments and 

 small roundish white anthers. Styles very short, with small capitate 

 stigmas, and the disk oblong, pale yellow, somewhat convex. Fruit 

 ovate, the sides compressed, crowned by the waved disk. Carpels with 

 five equal pale acute prominent crenated ridges, the lateral ones form- 

 ing the margins. Channels smooth, with several stria, but without 

 vittce. Albumen rounded at the back, the margins rolled inwards. 



Habitat. — Waste places, on the banks of rivers, woods and shady 

 places ; not unfrequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July, 



Hemlock, or Ciouta, contains an active narcotic acrid principle, 

 which, in proper doses, is a valuable and useful medicine, acting as a 

 sedative and alterative, and has been found of considerable use in the 

 relief of scirrhus and cancerous affections, by relieving the pain and 

 allaying the irritability, and is taken either internally, or applied ex- 

 ternally in the form of poultice, made with bread in the common way, 

 and the dried powdered leaves mixed with it ; and for internal exhi- 

 bition, the leaves gathered from good plants just before they come into 

 flower, carefully dried, and kept in a close stopped bottle, is perhaps the 

 best form to secure the preservation of its properties. It is also pre- 

 pared in the form of an extract, but generally this is so carelessly made 

 as to retain but little of its original activity ; if, however, the expressed 

 juice is evaporated at a very low heat in the sun, it retains for a con- 

 siderable period, if kept in close vessels, all its virtues. The leaves 

 made into warm fomentations we have also seen of considerable use 

 in promoting the healing process of various irritable ulcers. Fatal 

 accidents have sometimes occurred, from the Hemlock having been 

 mistaken for other plants; as in a short time it produces giddiness, head- 

 ache, stupor, delirium, coma, convulsions, and death. It is generally 

 believed to have been the juice of Hemlock, which was used in former 

 times, and especially among the Greeks, for despatching criminals ; 

 we are, however, in want of precise information as to this being the 

 only poison used ; indeed the accounts of the activity of their poison 

 would lead to the supposition that it was a compound, and'contained 

 more powerful ingredients. It was, however, the opinion of Linna;us 

 and Lamarck, that the poisonous draught was that of Hemlock. 



Hemlock is spoken of in Scripture (Hosea, ch. x., v. 4, and in 

 Amos, ch. vi., v. 12,) as a thing to be feared, something that appears 

 to have been familiar to the people of those limes, and what was looked 



