192 WEEDS OF FARM LAND 



Colchicum anfmnnale (Meadow saffron). Like many other 

 poisonous plants the meadow saffron has valuable medicinal 

 properties, and the seeds have often been prescribed for gout 

 and rheumatism. 1 The Turks infuse the flowers in wine to 

 render it more intoxicating, and the bulbs are said to be eaten 

 with impunity in the autumn by the peasantry in Carniola.-' 

 The poisonous nature of all parts of the plant causes it to 

 be looked on askance in this country, many instances of 

 poisoning of animals and human beings having been traced 

 to this source. 



Conium maculatum (Hemlock). As far back as the time 

 of Theophrastus a most powerful poisonous juice, used in 

 medicine and also for causing death, 3 was obtained from the 

 root of this plant, and there is a tradition that the poison 

 drunk by Socrates was hemlock. The fruits are the most 

 convenient sources of the alkaloid coniine as used for medical 

 purposes. It is said that the green unripe fruits possess the 

 major part of the peculiar properties of the plant, and that 

 they may be dried without loss of activity. 1 Hemlock has a 

 peculiar sedative effect upon the motor nerves and occasionally 

 used to be prescribed for that purpose, but Cushny states that 

 this drug, long widely used in therapeutics, has on more 

 accurate investigation failed to maintain its position and 

 passed into disuse. 4 The plant is supposed to give off a 

 narcotic effluvium which is most active in hot and dry seasons 

 and in warm countries. Linnaeus says that sheep eat the 

 leaves, but that horses, cows, and goats refuse them, while Ray 

 states that the thrush will feed upon the fruits even when corn 

 is to be had. 



The plant is often called kecks or caxes, apparently be- 

 cause spinsters used the stems for caxes to wind yarn upon. 2 



Conopodtum denudatum (Pignut). The edible quality of 

 the tuberous roots has long been recognised, for, according to 

 Gerarde, in the seventeenth century the Dutch people ate them 

 boiled and buttered, as we do parsnips and carrots. 5 They 

 have a flavour scarcely inferior to that of chestnuts, and it is 

 possible that in Holland and the Alps they are still so used. 

 Apparently they are palatable and very nutritious, either raw, 



1 Fluckiger and Hanbury (1874), " Pharmacographia : A History of 

 Drugs". 



* Hogg and Johnson, loc. cit. 



'Theophrastus, 322 B.C., " Enquiry into Plants," (Hort's Translation). 



4 Cushny, A. R. (1918), " Pharmacology and Therapeutics, or the Action of 

 Drugs," p. 306. 



'Gerarde, loc. cit. 



