(ENANTHE PHELLANDRIUM.— FINE-LEAVED WATER HEMLOCK. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA — Order II. DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, UMBELLIFERiE. THE UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE. 
Fig (a) represents the corolla, stamens, &c.; (6) a back view of the corolla, showing the calyx; (c) the germen and styles, 
with the stamens and anthers; ( d ) the fruit. 
This is an indigenous biennial plant, found growing in ditches and rivers; but not very common. We 
found it (says Professor Burnett,) in great abundance in a pond at Kentish Town, and in a deep ditch at 
Battersea, associated with the elegant Butomus umbellatus, Lythrum Salicaria, and other aquatics. It 
flowers in July and August. 
From a jointed root-stake, the fibres from which grow in whorls, proceeds an erect, hollow, smooth, 
furrowed stem, of a yellowish green colour, and very thick at the lower part, with diverging branches, to 
the height of three or four feet. The leaves are large, spreading, smooth, dark, shining green, tripinnate 
and finely divided. The umbels are many rayed, axillary, and opposite to the leaves. The flowers are 
small, white, formed into umbels, which in the species now under consideration, have a partial involucrum, 
composed of many lanceolate small leaves; petals equal, obcordate; calyx 5-leaved. The filaments are five, 
longer than the corolla, and supporting roundish anthers. The germen is inferior, oblong, with two styles, 
and obtuse stigmata. The fruit is ovate, smooth, striated, and splits into two akenia, each containing one 
small seed. The old genus Phellandrium is now allied to (Enanthe ; from which it differs only in the 
absence of a general involucre, and in having all the florets fertile, and not radiate. 
Qualities. — The whole plant has a heavy, disagreeable smell; the seeds (which are the parts that 
have been used in medicine) have an aromatic odour, and a moderately pungent taste, resembling those of 
fennel. Distilled with water, they yield an essential oil, of a pale yellow colour, and a strong penetrating 
smell. One pound affords an ounce of watery, and nearly double this quantity of spirituous extract, of 
which more than three drachms consist of resin. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — The seeds of phellandrium aquaticum, or, as it is now called, 
CEnanthe Phellandrium, are carminative narcotic, and diuretic. They have been much recommended on 
the continent in pulmonary consumption; and many cases are recorded, in which the disease, if not cured, 
was evidently relieved by them. 
Dr. Selig narrates a case of a young unmarried woman, whose mother died consumptive. She laboured 
under cough, dyspnoea, purulent expectoration, pain in the chest, and fever in the afternoon. 
It ought to be remarked, that during four weeks, in which Dr. Selig exhibited various pectoral and 
febrifuge medicines, the cough, fever, and pains in the chest were much abated; but the expectoration con- 
tinued, and was offensive by its smell. He then ordered the water-hemlock, with nitre and gum arabic ; 
and strongly urged his patient to permit a seton to be inserted between the shoulders ; which she would not 
submit to. In fourteen days she recovered astonishingly. There were, now, scarcely any remains of fever, 
and the cough and purulent expectoration were greatly diminished. Her strength and spirits returned. 
But as the doctor still insisted on the propriety of introducing a seton, and as her terrors at the remedy 
were great, she abandoned him and his medicine. She then began to grow worse, and in a few months 
after again sent for him : but the disease was too far advanced to leave any room for hope, and she died 
some months afterwards. 
The second case is more interesting. It is that of a youth of thirteen years of age, who had all the 
