


ee TPR eS ek ee ke, te 
1891.] Hemlock and Parsley. 785 
containing aromatic and volatile oil. In examination the botanist 
makes delicate cross-sections of these fruits under a dissecting 
microscope, and by the shape of the fruit and seed within, and by 
the number and position of the ribs and oil-tubes, is able to 
locate the genus. It of course requires skill and experience to 
do this, but any commonly intelligent class can learn the process. 
It goes without saying, and as a corollary to what has already 
been stated, that these plants should always be collected in full 
fruit; the flowers are comparatively unimportant. Any botanist 
would be justified in declining to name one of the family not in 
fruit. An attempt would often be mere guesswork. 
In this family is found the poison hemlock (Conium) used by 
the ancient Greeks for the elimination of politicians. It is a 
powerful poison. The whole plant has a curious mousy odor. 
It is of European origin. Our water hemlock is equally poisonous, 
and much more common. It is the Cicuta maculata of the 
swamps,—a tall, coarse plant which has given rise to many sad 
accidents. Æthusa cynapium, another poisonous plant, known as 
“ fool’s parsley,” is not uncommon, and certainly looks much like 
parsley. This only goes to show how difficult it is for any but 
the trained botanist to detect differences in this group of plants. 
Side by side may be growing two specimens, to the ordinary 
eye precisely alike, yet the one will be innocent and the other 
poisonous. 
The drug assafcetida is a product of this order. All the plants 
appear to “ form three different principles: the first, a watery acid 
matter; the second, a gum-resinous, milky substance; and the 
third, an aromatic, oily secretion. When the first of these pre- 
dominates they are poisonous; the second in excess converts 
them into stimulants ; the absence of the two renders them useful 
as esculents; the third causes them to be pleasant condiments.” 
So that besides the noxious plants there is a long range of useful 
vegetables, as parsnips, parsley, carrots, fennel, dill, anise, cara- 
way, cummin, coriander, and celery. The last, in its wild state, 
is said to be pernicious, but etiolation changes the products and 
renders them harmless. The flowers of all are too minute to be 
individually pretty, but every one knows how charming are the 


