182 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



were reputed aperitive, diuretic, and aHtiscorbutic, as also their 

 fruit, abandoned in our country. S. calif ornicum} a near neighbour 

 of, if not identical with, 8. angustifolium, has a root esteemed as an 

 aliment and a condiment by the Indians of Oregon,^ Ammi also 

 comprises stimulant and more or less acrid plants. Their odour is 

 generally feeble,^ especially in A. majus,* a European species whose 

 achenes are bitter, carminative and little used, and in A. Visnaga,^ 

 the fruit of which is diurectic, aperitive, and whose pedicels are used 

 as tooth-picks ^ in Spain. 



The decidedly poisonous plants are not very numerous in the 

 Caraway series. They are Gicuta, that is the true Hemlocks, one 

 species of which, 0. virosa'' (fig. 123, 124), is indigenous, growing 

 in marshes and ponds. Its odour is disagreeable, and all its parts 

 contain a yellowish juice of extreme acridity, dangerous alike to man 

 and animals. The same properties are attributed to it as to Gonium, 

 but it is not used in medicine. The fruit contains an essential oil 

 found also in Cumin, and its subterranean portions often consist of 

 turnip-shaped tubercles which have caused serious accidents from 

 being mistaken for edible roots. • In North America there is another 

 equally dangerous Gicuta (0. maculata^), also common in marshes. 

 The same properties are attributed to it as to the Great Hemlock, 

 but its action is much more energetic and its fresh tubercles are a 

 violent poison, the effects of which have been compared to those of 



• Selosciadium cali/ornieum Hook, and Aen. -witli J. eopticum, wliioli is a Carum of the sec- 

 ex A. Gkay, Fl. Wright, ii. 66. tion Ptychotis and which gives one of the 



2 In Coohinchina, S. grcBcum LouB. (ex Ro- odorous Ammi of commerce. 



SENTH. op. ait. 534) has diuretic and oarminative ' L. Sjiec. 368. — ffin. Fl. Dan. t. 208. Nees, 



fruit, and its leaves are potherhs [Sau K&n Off. Pfi. 12, t. 8.— Hayn. Arzn. Gew. i. t. 13.— 



Aoa«^ofthe Annamites). Bull. Berb. t. 31.— GuiB. op. cit. iii. 221, fig. 



' The Ammi of commerce, very odorous, is 620. — Endl. Enchirid. 386. — Lindl. Fl. Med. 



Ftyehotis. That said to he from Crete is P. 34.— Eosenth. op. cit. 521 .—Cieutaria aquatica 



vertlcillata DO. and that from India P. Ajowan, Lamk. Diet. ii. I.—Coriandrum Cicuta Both. 



that is, a Canm (p. 179, note 9). Sium Cicuta Vest. 



<L. /-Vc 349.— Lamk. JU. t. 193.— Sibth. » L. Spec. 367.— Bigel. Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 115; 



Fl. Gimc. t. 273.— DC. Prodr. iv. 113, n. 1.— Amer. Med. Sot. i. t. 12.-^Toke,. Fl. Unit. St. 



A. Soeberi Hoffm. — A. cicutrcfolium W. A. -1.308. — 'B.i^m. Med. Hot. i. t. 12. Lindl. Fl. 



glaucifolium L. is often suhstituted for the pre- Med. 34. — A. Gray, Man. ed. 5, 196. Chapm. 



''•^'^ing- Fl- S. Unit. St. lei.—Oicutaria maculata Lamk. 



" Lamk. Pict. i. 132.— DC. Prodr. iv. 113, n. C. tenuifolia Fkoel. and anguatifoUa Kit. which 



i. — Pancus Visnaga Jj.— Visnaga daucoides probably are not distinct species, have the same 



Gjsuta'. Fn(et. i. 92, t. 21. properties. 



° These two species should not be confounded 



