CONIUM MACULATUM.— COMMON, GEEATEE, OE SPOTTED HEMLOCK. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA — Order II. DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, UMBELLIFER.E. THE UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE. 
Fig (a) represents the root with part of the stem; (6) a perfect flower magnified; (c) the pistil; (d) the fruit, also magnified. 
Common Spotted Hemlock, or, as it is termed in our Dispensatories, Conium, is a tall umbelliferous bi- 
ennial plant indigenous to Britain ; growing wild in almost every climate, and with us, is found by road- 
sides, in hedges and waste places ; flowering in June and July. 
The root is fusiform, resembling that of the common garden parsnip ; of a yellowish-white colour ex- 
ternally, and white and fleshy within. The stem, which rises from two to five feet high, is herbaceous, erect 
round, hollow, much branched, polished and variegated with spots and streaks of a reddish purple. The 
leaves much resemble parsley or chervil, a circumstance which has sometimes given rise to fatal accidents. 
The lower ones are large, spreading, and repeatedly compound ; the upper ones are bipinnate ; the whole 
stand on long furrowed footstalks ; the leaflets are ovate, sharply serrate, of a shining green colour on the 
upper side, and a whitish green underneath. The umbels are terminal, compound, and many rayed. The 
general involucrum consists of several short, unequal, lanceolate leaves ; the partial ones generally of three 
leaflets, which only half encompass the umbellule. The flowers are small, and very numerous; the petals white, 
the outer ones somewhat irregular, indexed at the apex, and heart-shaped. The stamens are capillary, 
with roundish anthers. The germen is situated under the flower, supporting two reflexed styles, and obtuse 
stigmata. The fruit is an ovate, or roundish diakenium or rather diakenopsis, each carpel bearing five equal 
prominent primary ridges, the lateral ones marginal : the ridges are waved or crenated ; and the vallecules 
are taversed by many streaks, but destitute of vittae ; the seeds are solitary, each having a deep narrow 
groove in front. 
Hemlock is not unfrequently mistaken by herb-gatherers, and even by medical men, ignorant of Botany, 
for other plants of the same tribe — most commonly for wild cicily, (Cheerophyllum sylvestre ,) which it very 
much resembles. By a little attention to the characters, the plants may readily be distinguished. Thus in 
C. sylvestre the stem is furrowed, without spots, and hairy ; in hemlock it is smooth, and irregularly studded 
with purplish spots. The latter too has a broadish reflexed involucrum, consisting of from three to seven 
leaves, under both the universal and partial umbels ; petals bifid ; and seeds, that are striated and beauti- 
fully notched on the edges ; whilst in the former the partial involucre only is present, the petals are entire 
and the seeds are not striated. 
Other umbelliferous plants are likewise frequently mistaken for hemlock even by those persons who are 
employed to collect herbs for medicinal purposes. A large quantity of oenanthe crocata was some time since 
at least offered for sale, if not bought as Conium ; and in the summer of 1831, we met with a herb-gatherer 
who had collected a bundle of Myrrhis temulenta, mistaking it for Conium ; and who, notwithstanding our 
assurances, insisted it was the true hemlock, and contemned our warnings. 
To errors such as these, and which only can be avoided by medical men being themselves conversant 
with the characters of the officinal plants, must much of the disappointment and many of the failures be 
attributed, that are so frequently heard of, as well as those fatal accidents which from time to time occur. 
A plant, bearing the name of Conium was celebrated amongst the Ancients, as a violent poison ; and 
those who were condemned to death by the tribunal of Areopagus, were poisoned by the juice of a species of 
hemlock. Theramanes, one of the thirty, and Phocion suffered publicly from its effects: and Socrates, 
whose disciple he had been, and who was the only senator who ventured to appear in his defence, not only 
immortalized himself by his talents, wisdom and virtues, but by his own death has conferred a notoriety on 
Conium, which time will never efface. The account of his death as narrated in the Phcedon of Plato, we subjoin. 
And while it affects the mind by its tender touches, and by a consideration of the blind and delusive 
impulses, which can stimulate a popular faction to a fatal deed, the consequences of which were unseen, till 
the glory of the Athenians was disappearing, it is evident that the symptoms which the poison is here said 
to have produced, do not exactly correspond with those we look for, from the Conium maculatum of Europe: 
but we must remember that the historian is not a physician, from whom to expect a scientific or modern de- 
scription ; “that the idiosyncrasies of different individuals render them variously susceptable of the action of the 
hemlock;” and that all narcotic plants exert very different effects when administered to the natives 
of warm climates, to those which they produce when they are given either to the weak or the robust of our 
northern soil. 
“And Crito hearing this, gave the sign to the boy who stood near. And the boy departing, after some time 
returned bringing with him the man who was to administer the poison, who brought it ready bruised in a cup. 
And Socrates beholding the man, said, £ Good friend, come hither; you are experienced in these affairs, — what is 
to be done ?’ ‘Nothing 5 replied the man, ‘only when you have drank the poison, you are to walk about until 
a heaviness takes place in your legs ; then lie down : this is all you have to do/ At the same time he pre- 
sented him the cup. Socrates received it fromhimwith great calmness, without fear or change of countenance, 
