CENANTHE CROCATA.— HEMLOCK WATER-DROP WORT. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA. Order II. DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, UMBELLIFER.E. THE UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) represents a floret of the circumference ; (6) a floret of the disc. 
CEnanthe Crocata is decidedly one of the most active of our poisonous vegetables. When received into 
the stomach in any considerable quantity, it produces very violent effects on the nervous system, which 
speedily prove fatal. It is a tall umbelliferous plant, somewhat resembling Smallage, or Wild Celery, for 
which it has sometimes been mistaken. It is found growing on the sides of ditches, and on the borders of 
lakes and rivers, in many parts of Britain; flowering in July. It is particularly abundant on the banks of 
the Thames between Greenwich and Woolwich among the reeds, growing with Apium graveolens, and some 
other aquatics ; about the Red-house, Battersea ; in the Isle of Dogs, and other places near London. Dr. 
Milne found it in the marshes about Tunbridge ; by the side of the Lewisham river, beyond the water- 
works; in the marshy meadows between South-end and Sydenham; and betwixt Loom-pit hill and Lew- 
isham, on the left-hand in going from New-cross, near the bridge. It is very common in some of the 
northern counties, and we learn from Dr. Greville, in his “ Flora Edinensis,” that it grows on the bank of a 
river, at the beautiful village Lasswade, near Edinburgh. 
The root is thick, white, fleshy, and divided into three of four small ramifications, somewhat resembling 
the common parsnip, for which it has sometimes been mistaken. The stem, which as well as the root con- 
tains a foetid, orange-coloured juice, is round, furrowed, hollow, much branched, and rises to the height of 
three or four feet. The form and colour of the leaves, and indeed the general appearance and habit of the 
plant, have a striking resemblance to the common garden parsley. The leaves are large, tri-quadri-pinnate, 
smooth, of a deep green, with the leaflets wedge-shaped, mostly opposite, veined, irregularly cut, and 
sessile, or placed on very short stalks. The general umbels are large, terminal, many-rayed ; the partial 
ones more numerous, and very short : the general, as well as partial involucres consist of many leaves, 
varying in number and form. The flowers are white, or pinkish, obcordate, numerous, slightly radiating ; 
the outermost irregular and abortive, the innermost smaller, regular, and prolific : the filaments are thread- 
shaped, longer than the corolla, with roundish anthers : the germen is ovate, with a slender awl-shaped 
style, supporting a small obtuse stigma. The fruit is oblong, with five convex ridges, and crowned with the 
permanent limb of the calyx, and elongated spreading styles. 
The scientific name CEnanthe, occurs in Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and is derived oivy, from, the 
vine, and av6or, a flower. To urn efort first applied it to the present genus, because it blossoms at the same 
time as the vine, and because the flowers reminded him of the smell and colour of that plant. The trivial 
name crocata was given in consequence of the yellow juice which it yields. 
Wepfer has confounded this plant with his Cicuta aquatica, and complains that Lobel has described the 
Cicuta aquatica under the name of CEnanthe Cicuta! facie, succo viroso croceo, nine years afterwards. In the 
Ephemerules Natures Curiosorum, he also asserts that Stalpart Van Der JViel makes the same mistake ; 
although from the descriptions of Lobel, which were very exact for the times he lived in, and from the 
plates of Stalpart, it is very evident that they were right. Hoffman also, in his Medicin. Rational. Sys- 
tematic. tom. ii. p. If 4 . edit. 4 to. makes no mention of the difference. His words are, “ Ex vegetabilium 
regno inter prsesentissima venena referri debeat cicuta vera, napellus sive aconitum cseruleum, solanum 
furiosum, hyosciamus, ac datura.” 
We have already observed, that both the colour and form of the leaves have a striking resemblance to 
parsley, and Johnson asserts, that either from ignorance, or a less excusable cause, the roots were in his 
time frequently sold for those of poeony; and that the women likewise, who supply the apothecaries with 
herbs, vended this pernicious root under the name of Water Lovage. A man has lately been imposing on 
the inhabitants in the vicinity of town, by selling the roots for those of the beautiful Dahlia. 
Qualities. — The root, in which the deleterious quality is most powerfully resident, oontains a juice 
that is at first milky, and afterwards becomes yellow. It has an acrid, unpleasant taste, and foetid smell. 
The other parts of the plant also yield the same kind of juice; and Mr. Erhert, a botanical artist, asserted, 
that while drawing the plant, the smell from it rendered him so giddy, that he was several times obliged to 
quit the room, and walk in the air to recover himself: but that having opened the door and windows of the 
room, the free air enabled him to finish his work. 
