BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 
183 
the determination. This plant belongs to the natural order UnibelUferoB, an emi- 
nently poisonous order, which contains such plants as Conium maculatum, Cicuta 
virosa, (Enauthe crocata, ^thusa Cynapium, &c. The Cicuta maculata, which has 
been the cause of the present accident, is known throughout Canada and the States, 
by such common names as Water Hemlock, Spotted Cowbane, Beaver Poison, Mus- 
quash Root, &c. That it is mistaken for Aralia racemosa, at this season of the year 
when foliage is absent, is not at all remarkable. However, in summer it more 
closely resembles other innocent plants of its own order, Urabelliferse. The Cicuta 
is widely distributed. In the central parts of Upper Canada it appears to be com- 
mon. It is recorded as growing at Montreal (Holmes' list of Herb.) ; and East 
Riding of Northumberland (Mr. Macoun). We have examined specimens from 
Prescott, (Mr. Billings), Churchill, Hudson's Bay Territories, (Mr. McTavish), 
Banks of Comale Creek, Texas, (Lindheimer), &c., so that it has evidently a wide 
range. It does not occur in any of our local plant lists, from Hamilton or the 
west, but as Torrey and Gray speak of it stretching to Oregon, it is probably com- 
mon throughout Canada. Dr. Trousdale alludes to the accidental poisoning some 
time ago of seven horses, which fell a sacrifice to this weed in the same locality 
whence the present more serious case reaches us. 
The plant grows in swamps and lowland meadows, from four to six or eight 
feet high, the stem is, at the base, of the thickness of the forefinger, more or less, cy- 
lindrical, hollow, finely striate with green and purple, sometimes spotted. The foli- 
age varies greatly as in most water plants. The leaves are compound biternately 
divided, with short broadly sheathing petioles ; segments lanceolate, of variable 
breadth, mucronately serrate, all stalked, the primary veins running to the notches 
(instead of the ^om^*) of the serratufes. The flowers are in large, chiefly terminal, 
umbels, composed of little umbellets, with sometimes one or two leaflets as a false 
involucre. The involucels are composed of from five to six short linear leaves. 
The fruit is appropriately likened by Torrey and Gray to Anise. The root consists 
of a cluster of large somewhat fusiform tubers not unlike those of Aconitum ISlapel- 
lus. The tuber in section shows a large white pith, surrounded by a well-defined 
ring of a yellow or greenish hue, outside of which the tissue is paler, the outer skin 
brown. The whole tissue is soft and cellular, the cells being transparent, some 
containing minute, regular starch granules, and large quantities cf a green oily 
fluid are seen throughout the tissue. The part forming the dark ring or zone con- 
tains spiral vessels, which present the anomaly of being angular, somewhat like 
scalariforra vessels, but the fibre is unrollable, and the apparent angularity depends 
merely upon the nice adjustment of the sides of the spiral vessel to the smaller 
cells, with which it is surrounded. 
The roots sent by Dr. Trousdale have been planted in the Kingston Botanic 
Garden. 
