CICUTA, OR WATER HEMLOCK. 5 
For comparison with the diagnosis of Cicuta there follows a diag- 
nosis of Conium compiled from Gray’s Manual: 
A biennial umbellifer with spotted stems, large decompound leaves with lanceolate 
pinnatifid leaflets. Involucre and involucels of narrow bracts, flowers white. Fruit 
ovate, flattened at the sides, glabrous, with prominent wavy ribs; oil tubes none, but 
a layer of secreting cells next the seed, the face of which is deeply and narrowly 
concave. 
Leaves and flowers of water hemlock (Cicuta vagans) are shown 
in Plate I, while a young plant of the same species is illustrated in 
Plate II. For comparison, a branch of Convum maculatum is shown 
in Plate IIT. 
It will be seen that Cicuta and Conium are clearly distinguished 
morphologically by the leaves and fruit and by the presence of an 
involucre in Conium and its absence in Cicuta: These character- 
istics, however, are hardly sufficient to enable one unskilled in botany 
to make the distinction readily. 
_ A peculiarity of the rootstock which is not mentioned by the sys- 
tematic botanists makes it comparatively easy to distinguish Cicuta 
from any other umbellifer that is likely to be found in the same 
locality. If the rootstock is cut longitudinally there will be seen, 
more or less clearly, a elvan of transverse chambers, as shown in 
Plate TL. Sinha mwa Hngglica ap, Nato 
These ioe not as deunets in the spring as later in Te sea- 
son, but they can always be recognized. This peculiarity of the 
root was noted in Flora Danica in 1765, a figure showing the cham- 
bers. They were mentioned by Trumel, 1838, and Maly, 1844, and 
have been figured by a number of more recent authors. It should be 
noted, too, that while Conium grows in fields and waste places, Cicuta 
grows in wet places, like swamps and along irrigating ditches, the 
old specific name aquatica being a particularly appropriate one. 
POPULAR NAMES. 
Among English-speaking people the Cicuta is most commonly 
known as ‘‘water hemlock” or ‘‘cowbane.” Other names are 
“parsnip” (or ‘‘wild parsnip’’), ‘‘snakeroot,’”’ ‘‘spotted hemlock,” 
‘‘spotted parsley,” ‘‘snakeweed,”’ ‘‘beaver poison,’ ‘‘musquash 
‘root,” and ‘‘muskrat weed.”’ 
In New Mexico it has been known as ‘‘pecos.’’ According to 
-Muhlenberg, an Indian name was ‘‘utcum.”’ 
Among the Germans it is known as ‘‘Wasserschierling,’’ some- 
times as ‘‘eiftiger Schierling.” .‘‘Schierling” seems to be more 
commonly applied to Conium, although apparently this distinction 
between ‘‘Wasserschierling” and ‘‘Schierling” is not always made. 
It is also known as ‘‘Wiiterich,” ‘‘giftiger Witerich,” ‘‘Parzen- 
kraut,” ‘‘Tollkraut,” and ‘‘Tollrube.”’ 
1 Seventh edition, p. 613. 
