16 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Parsnip, Celery ; the seeds are said never to be poisonous, and 

 often are a pleasant aromatic, as Coriander, Dill. Various gum- 

 resins exude from the wounded stem or branches, possessing very 

 different properties, as Assafoetida from a species of Ferula, and 

 gum Galbanum, as is supposed, from Bubon galbanum. Various 

 medicinal properties are exhibited by them, and many become 

 valuable articles. About twenty species are credited to this 

 State. 



Conium. L. 5. 2. 



C. maculatum. L. Poison Hemlock. This plant de- 

 lights in the sides of roads and fences, and abounds in 

 many places where the soil is light and dry. In the time of 

 flowering especially, it fills the air with nauseating effluvia ; 

 grows from three to five feet high, branching, light green, spotted 

 and handsome, and sends up many terminal umbels of small white 

 flowers. It has no resemblance to our tree called Hemlock. It 

 is employed to obtain, by maceration and careful evaporation, the 

 extract usually called Cicuta, so valuable in medicine (see Big- 

 elow's " Medical Botany "). It is supposed to have yielded the 

 poison which Socrates drank. It is a native of Europe, and 

 usually believed to have been introduced and naturalized here. 

 Flowers in July. 



Conium is derived from the Greek for dust, probably from the 

 dusty appearance of the pollen. 



Cicuta. L. 5. 2. American Hemlock. 



The name Cicuta is of unknown origin ; used by Virgil. Lou- 

 don. 



Two species, growing on low grounds, and poisonous ; natives 

 of the United States and Canada. 



1. C. maculata. L. Water Parsnip. Musquash Root. 

 Stem 4-5 feet high, smooth, branching, spotted, with triply 

 pinnate or much divided leaves ; whole plant rather glaucous 

 green ; in wet meadows and pastures, not very abundant. When 

 the leaves rise from the ground, the plant has some resemblance 

 in form and odor to Sweet Cicely, and, though the root is far less 



