131.— Don’s Gen. Syst. of Card, and Bo(. v, iii. p. 370. — Macr. Man. Brit. Bot. 
p. 106.— Lightf. FI. Scot. v. i. p. 157. — Sibtli. FI. Oxon. p. 94. — Abbot’s FI. Bedf. 
p. 60. — Davies’ Welsh Bot. p. 28. — Thornt. Fam. Herb. p. 317, with a figure. — 
Purt. Midi. FI. v. i. p. 141.— Relh. FI. Cant. (3rded.) p. 114.— Hook. FI. Scot, 
p. 88. — Grev. FI. Ediu. p. 63. — FI. Devon, pp. 49 & 166. — Johnst. Fl. Berw. v. i. 
p. 69. — Winch’s FI. of ISorthumb. and Durli. p. 19. — Walker’s Fl. of Oxf. p. 80. — 
Burn. Outl. of Bot. v. ii. p. 782. — Bab. Fl. Bath. p. 21. — Dick. Fl. Abred. p. 31. — 
Mack. Cat. of PI. of Irel. p. 28. ; Fl. Ilibern. p. 127. — Cicuta, Bay’s Syn. p. 215. 
— Johnson’s Gcrarde, p. 1061, 
Localities. — In hedges, orchards, waste ground, and on rubbish and dunghills, 
especially near towns and villages ; frequent. 
Biennial. — Flowers in June and July. 
Root fleshy, tap-shaped, whitish, frequently forked, of a dis- 
agreeable smell, and sweetish taste. Stem from 3 to 6 feet high, 
upright, round, hollow, smooth, glaucous, shining, much branched, 
and copiously spotted or streaked with reddish or brownish-purple. 
Leaves large, spreading, repeatedly compound, of a deep shining 
green ; leaflets egg-shaped, closely and sharply pinnatified ; petioles 
long, furrowed, dilated and sheathing at the base. Umbels termi- 
nal, very numerous, upright, compound, occasionally attended by 
one or two simple axillary ones ; all many-rayed and smooth. 
General involucrums of several short egg-spear-shaped leaves, 
which are membranous at their edges ; partial ones ( involucels ) 
of about 3 spear-shaped leaves, which are all directed to one side, 
and much shorter than the umbellules, a character which will dis- 
tinguish this from JFAhusa cynapium, in which the umbellules are 
shorter than the involucels (see t. 19). Flowers numerous, white, 
all prolific ; the outermost slightly irregular. Fruit abundant, 
egg-shaped, slightly compressed, furrowed, the ridges crenated. 
Carpels with 5 crenated ridges, 3 on the back, and 2 on the 
margins. 
Hemlock is a native throughout the whole of Europe ; also of the eastern 
parts of Asia, North Ameiica, and Chili . where it has been introduced. It is 
distinguished from all other umbelliferous plants by its spotted stem, by the dark 
and shining green colour of the bottom leaves, and particularly by the foetid 
smell of the whole herbage when bruised. It is considered one of the most 
noxious of vegetable poisons, yet, like many other poisons, it has, in small doses, 
proved a serviceable medicine ; it is sedative and alterative ; and Baron Stosrck, 
of Vienna, who first brought this plant into repute as a medicine, about 1760, 
extols it highly, both as an internal medicine and an external application, in the 
treatment of scirrhus and cancer: yet much care is required in its administra- 
tion, as when taken in an over-dose, it produces giddiness, headache, dimness 
of sight, difficulty of speech, nausea, delirium, great anxiety, stupor, and con- 
vulsions, and if proper means to obviate the fatal effects are not promptly taken, 
death rapidly ensues. Linn.ecs, Lamarck, and others, believed the poison 
which was administered to Socrates, the Athenian philosopher, to have been 
the juice of the Conium maculatum ; others supposed that the fatal draught 
was a compound of several herbs; and IIaller considered it to have been de- 
rived from the Cicuta virosa, a poisonous aquatic, which in its operation is 
much more powerful and violent than the common Hemlock. That the modern 
Conium is identical with the koneion of the Greeks, is rendered probable from 
its being very common in Peloponnesus; “ most abundant (says Dr. Sibthorp) 
between Athens and Alegara,” and that the Cicuta virosa, (Enanthe phellan- 
driun, and JEthusa cynopium, (t. 19.) are not found in any part of the country. 
Although Hemlock will destroy life in men and kine, yet sheep, goats, and 
horses, will feed upon it without danger ; and Ray informs us, that thrushes will 
cat the seeds, which are more potent than the leaves, even when corn is to be 
had- 
