400 Prof. Christison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock, 



duces a tall stem, jointed like that of fennel [Anethumfteniculum] ;* 

 leaves like the ferula [Ferula communis], but narrower, and of a 

 heavy smell ; branch-shoots and umbels at the summit ; a whitish 

 flower ; a seed like that of anise, but whiter ; a hollow root, not 

 deep."f The description given by Pliny of the Cicuta, which is 

 well made out to have been the Greek YLwmv, follows closely that 

 of Dioscorides. " The stem * * * is smooth, jointed like 

 a reed, blackish, taller frequently than two cubits, very branchy 

 at top. The leaves are more tender than those of coriander, of a 

 heavy odour ; the seed thicker than anise ; the root hollow." J 



Now it appears to me impossible to refer the plant by these 

 descriptions to the modern Conium maculatum. The description 

 of the stem, leaves, summit, flower and seed, is so vague, that it 

 will apply to twenty umbelliferous species as well as to our hem- 

 lock. Pliny's term nigricans, applied to the stem, is but a feeble 

 approach to the very remarkable character of the modern plant, 

 the purple-spotted stem, — a character so obvious, that one can 

 scarcely imagine an ancient herbalist omitting it in taking a de- 

 scription from an actual specimen. Leaves narrower than those 

 of ferula, more tender than those of coriander, if modern scholars 

 and physicians are right in so translating the Greek »a^?|,'§ and 



* " M«g#0gev, Anethum faeniculum ; bodie xy^io^xXx^ov. Icon. English Botany, t. 1 208." 

 Sibth. Flor. Graec. Prod. i. 204. 



"j* Kavaov r.xvXov dvtvj<ri ywxTwovi tag f£Xgx8(>ov, piyxv [[some read pctXctvx~j, (pvXXx 8s vxp6»x.t l/ttpipx, 

 G-rivuTipcc ^s xxi {Zxpvtxrftx. nr ax-pav 01 xiropvaits kxi mctxdici. avSog v7roXsvx.ov. trinppix i{&(pipi$ xvifu, 

 XivKan^ov. p^Ztx. xoiXn x.xi a fixiux. Dioscorides, iv. 79- Edit. J. A. Saraceni, 1598, p. 276. 



J Cicuta quoque venenum est * * * Caulis autem et viridis estur a plerisque et in 

 patinis. Lsevis hie et geniculatus, ut calami, nigricans, altior saepe binis cubitis, in cacumi- 

 nibus racemosus : folia coriandri teneriora, gravi odoratu : semen aneso crassius : radix 

 concava, nullius usus. Plinii Historic/, Naturalis, xxv. 95. ; p. 421 in Edit. Brotier, 

 Paris 1779- 



§ Sibthorpe found the Ferula communis of Linnaeus growing on Cyprus, where it is now 

 called avxtfrptx ; and he conceives it to be the Noeg&j! of Dioscorides. [Florae Graecae Pro- 

 dromus, i. 190.] He refers for a representation of it to Dodonaeus, Historia Stirpium, 

 Antverpiae 1676, p. 321. The rude drawing there given has certainly considerable resem- 

 blance to hemlock in the leaves ; but equally resembles many other umbelliferous plants. 



