iETHUSA CYNAPIUM. LESSER HEMLOCK, OK FOOL’S PARSLEY. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA. Order II. DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, U M B E L L I FE R^E. THE UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE. 
Gen. Char. Universal involucre 0; partial 3-leaved, pendulous, dimidiate, placed on the outside. 
Fruit ovato-globose, carpels 5-ribbed ; ridges elevated, thick, and acutely keeled. 
Spec. Char. “ Leaves uniform ; leaflets wedged-shaped, decurrent, with lanceolate segments/’ — 
Smith. 
Fool’s Parsley, so called from the deleterious property of the plant, and the resemblances it bears 
to parsley, for which it is sometimes unfortunately mistaken, is an annual plant, common in gardens and 
cultivated grounds in every part of Great Britain and Ireland; flowering from June to September. We 
observed it in profusion in the churchyards of St. George the Martyr, Borough ; and St. Martin 
in the Fields, London. 
From a root ( d ) which is slender and spindle-shaped, the stem rises to the height of a foot or more ; it 
is erect, smooth, branched, striated or slightly grooved, hollow, and generally of a dark purple colour at 
the base, but not spotted. The lower leaves are tri-pinnate, smooth and shining ; of a dark green colour, 
and supported on short sheathing foot-stalks ; the upper ones are bi-pinnate : segments ovate-lanceolate, 
deeply cut, lobed, and more or less decurrent. The umbels are terminal, on longish peduncles, many rayed, 
the inner rays becoming gradually shorter ; umbellules, small and spreading. The partial involucres con- 
sist of three long, linear, pendent leaves, which only half encompass the umbel on the outside. The flowers 
(a) are very small ; the petals white, unequal, obcordate, and somewhat radiating ; the stamens are five, 
simple, supporting roundish anthers, (A). The germen is beneath the flower, having two reflex styles and 
obtuse stigmata. The fruit (c) is ovate, roundish, deeply grooved, crowned with the styles, and divisible 
into two parts, each containing a single seed. 
Qualities. — The seeds, when bruised, have a slight disagreeable odour, and a nauseous pungent taste. 
Alcohol extracts their active matter ; which is an alkaloid that crystallizes in rhombic prisms ; it is likewise 
soluble in water, but not in ether. 
Distinctive Characters. — Being so abundant a weed in rich garden soils, the (E Cynapium is fre- 
quently mistaken for common parsley; and therefore deserves to have its characters and noxious qualities 
universally known and exposed. Although it bears a strong resemblance to the garden parsley, it exhibits 
differences in its botanical characters, by which it may at once be distinguished. The leaves of fool’s pars- 
ley are finer, more acute, decurrent, of a darker green ; and instead of the peculiar parsley smell, have, when 
bruised, a disagreeable odour. When the flower stem of the fool’s parsley appears, the plant is readily dis- 
tinguished from all other umbellate plants, by what is called its beard — three long, pendulous leaves of the 
involucellum (e) under the partial, and no involucrum to the general umbels. The flowers too of the fool’s 
parsley are white, those of the garden parsley pale yellow. In order to prevent mistakes, it has been recom- 
mended to cultivate the curled variety of the common parsley only ; as it not only possesses the same vir- 
tues, but also makes a more elegant garnish. 
From Dr. Buckhave we have gleaned the following interesting account; by which it will be seen, that 
it has also been inadvertently used for Conium maculatum. From this plant, however, it is essentially 
distinguished, as well by the inferiority of its size and unspotted stalk, as by the partial involucres, already 
described; this plant having no general involucre, while hemlock has both general and partial. 
“A patient, aged 40, being afflicted with carcinomatous ulcerations of the face and neck. Hemlock pills 
were prescribed; which she took without inconvenience for two months. But no change, for the better, 
being produced upon the disease, her Physician prescribed the herb of the Hemlock; directing an ounce to 
be boiled in thirty- two ounces of water; and of the strained liquor, three ounces were ordered to be taken 
daily, in different portions, for four or five weeks. But during that time, she frequently complained that the 
draughts excited tremors, vertigo, headache, cholic pains, vomiting, loss of strength and aversion to food. 
Suspecting that these might proceed from regimen, he directed strict attention to that particular; and advised 
her to continue the decoction. But being afterwards informed that symptoms still more alarming had taken 
place, particularly violent vomiting, he was led to examine the plant, and soon found a large proportion of 
the JEthusa. After this, she was furnished with genuine Hemlock; she formed a similar decoction of it, 
and took it in the same manner, without inconvenience. Under this medicine, the symptoms of the disease 
gradually decreased, and at the end of eleven months, the ulcerations healed.” This author relates, also, 
two or three other cases of the same kind. 
