WHITE AND GREENISH WILD FLOWERS 
Hercules who, according to Pliny, used it in medicine. 
The immense hollow stalk, which is grooved, woolly 
and very stout, grows from four to eight feet high, 
and at the base it is often two inches in diameter. The 
large, rather thin, but coarse compound leaf has three 
deeply lobed and irregularly notched and _ toothed, 
broad, pointed-oval leaflets that are very hairy on the 
under side, and quite smooth above. The leaf is set 
on short, widely winged stems that clasp the stalk. 
The small, white, five-petalled flowers are gathered 
in an extensive, wide-spreading, flat-topped disk or 
umbel which is sometimes a foot or more broad. The 
outer blossoms are larger than the inner ones and 
their petals are deeply notched and heart-shaped. 
The Cow Parsnip is rank and coarse, and grows with 
a tropical luxuriance, in low, moist grounds, where 
its great white, floral heads are raised like a platter 
during June and July. The plant has a disagreeable 
odour, and the foliage and roots produce redness and 
inflammation when applied to the skin. The acrid 
roots have been used as a remedy in epileptic cases 
and also as a stimulant. The roots are also said to 
have been roasted and used as a food by the Canadian 
Indians, who also ate the raw leaf stems, which they 
called Indian Rhubarb. The Parsnip River was so 
named because of the abundance of these plants along 
its banks. The Cow Parsnip is the only important 
one of its genus growing in North America. 
It is found from Labrador and Newfoundland 
to Alaska, south to North Carolina, Missouri, 
282 
