it2 CLASS PENTANDRIA. 
quainted the people with the poisonous qualities of the plant, and 
thus enabled them to provide against the danger by fencing in the 
marsh. The poison hemlocli (Conium maculatum) has a pecuharly 
unpleasant, nauseous smell; its stalk is large and spotted, from 
whence its specific name maculatum,^ which signifies spotted. This 
plant is supposed to be the poison so fatally administered by the 
Athenians to Socrates and Phocion. 
The umbellate plants which grow on dry ground are aromatic; as 
dill, and fennel ; those which grow in wet places, or the aquatic 
species, are among the most deadly poisons ; as water parsnip, &c. 
Plants of this family are not in general so beautiful to the sight, nor 
so interesting, as objects of botanical analysis, as many others.* 
In order to assist you in analyzing plants of this family, we will il- 
lustrate their botanical characters by a sketch of the coriandei. 
1. Calyx, a; this is of that kind called an involucrum ; the leaves 
which you see at the foot of the universal umbel, form what is calltd i, 
the general involucrum ; the leaves which are at the foot of the par- 
tial umbel, form a partial involucrum. Both of these involucrums j! 
are pinnatijid, or have the leaves divided. _ :; 
2. Corolla, 6; this is represented as magnified ; you can see thatil i 
has five petals, inflected or bent inwards. ' 
3. Stamens, five, anthers somewhat divided. n 
4. Pistils, two, rejiexed or bent back, as may be seen on the seed |l 
c, where the stigmas are permanent. 
5. Pericarp, is wanting in all umbellate plants. ^ 
6. Seed, c, is round, with its two styles at the summit ; it consists j 
of two carpels. 
♦ Botanists in general shrink from the study of the Umbelliferae ; nor have these ill 
plants much beauty in the eyes of amateurs ; but they will repay the trouble of a care- 
ful observation. The late M. Cusson of Montpelier bestowed more pains upon ihern 
th!in any other botanist has ever done; but the world has, as yet, been favourea with 
'jn\y a part of his remarks. His labours met with a most ungrateful check, m the un- 1 
kindness and mjrtifying stupidity of his wife, who, in his absence from borne, is re- 
corded to have destroyed his whole herbarium, scraping off the dried specimens for the j 
sake of the paper on which they were pasted Sir James Edward Smith s IntrO' j i 
duction to Botany." _ 
What is said of the poison hemlock 1- -Describe Fig. 128. 
