370 
PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Conium. 
CO'NIUM. # Involucellum extending half way round, of 
about three leaves: Fruit egg-shaped, gibbous, ribs 
compressed, wavy before the fruit is ripe. 
C. macula'tum. Seeds without prickles : stem much branched, shining, 
spotted. 
Jacq. Ausir. 156— Curt. i. 7— Woodv. 22— Riv. Pent. 75. Cicuta — (E. Bot. 
1191. E.) — Kniph. 11— Storck — Gent. Mag. 1762. p. 273— Clus. ii. 200. 
2 —Bod. 461— Lob. Obs. 422. 1; Ic. i. 732.1— Ger. Em. 1061 —Park. 933. 
1— II. Ox. ix. 6. row 3. 1— Blackw. 573. a. 6— Fuchs. 406— J. B . iii. 6. 
175. 3— Trag. 4>74<—Matth. 1098— Ger. 903. 1—Blackw. 451. 
( Leaves compound, very much cut, shining, green. Stem two to four feet 
high, hollow, erect. Root fleshy, tap-shaped, whitish. Petals heart- 
shaped. E.) Stems and branches shining, spotted, and streaked with 
brownish or blackish purple. Involucellum of one leaf divided into three 
and four ; segments at the edges white and membranous. Outer petals 
the largest. Flowers white. ( Plant fetid when bruised. E.) 
Hemlock. (Irish: Minvear. Welsh: Cegiden gyjpredin. C. maculatum. 
Linn. With. Curt. Woodv. Sm. Hook. Grev. Wiild. Jacq. Bull. Cicuta. 
Ray. Ger. Lob. Riv. Matth. Cam. Dod. and of some Pharmacopoeias. 
E.) Hedges, orchards, rubbish, cultivated ground, and dunghills. 
B. June—July.t 
article of trade. The vulgar name is derived from the resemblance of the roots to nut 
kernels, and the food they furnish pigs. It is to procure the Pig-nuts, that swine root the 
earth up in meadows. Ray mentions as a fact he had himself observed, that when there 
are no stalks or leaves left to indicate the places where they grow, and they occur only 
here and there, still those animals, by their scent, easily find them out, and root only in 
the right places—a singular and instructive example of the instinct with which the Crea¬ 
tor has provided animals, in order to supply their wants. The passage may be found in 
‘ The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation,’ one of the ablest works 
that ever appeared on the subject. E.) 
* (From kojvbiov, a turning round ; as occasioning vertigo. E.) 
f The whole plant is poisonous, and many instances are recorded of its deleterious 
effects : (to cite only one ; two soldiers, quartered at Waltham Abbey, eat of these herbs, 
(collected in the fields adjoining), dressed with bacon and in broth. In a short time they 
were seized with vertigo, became comatose, convulsed, and died in about three hours. 
Phil. Tr. v. xlii. E.); but modern experience, according to some writers, has proved it 
to be less virulent than was formerly imagined; and though it may not cure Cancers, it is 
certainly a very useful medicine when properly prepared. In the first and second editions 
of this work, particular directions were given for making the extract, but such is the uncer¬ 
tainty of it, owing to the difficulty of preparing it, that I have for some years laid it aside, 
and prescribed only the powder of the dried leaves. Let the leaves be gathered about the 
end of June, when the plant is in flower. Pick off the little leaves, and throw away the 
leaf stalks. Dry these selected little leaves in a hot sun, or on a tin dripping-pan or 
pewter dish before a fire. Preserve them in bags made of strong brown paper, or powder 
them, and keep the powder in glass phials, in a drawer, or something that will exclude 
the light, for the light soon dissipates the beautiful green colour, and with its colour the 
medicine loses its efficacy. From fifteen to twenty-five grains of this powder may be 
taken twice or thrice a day. I have found it particularly useful in chronic rheumatisms, 
and also in many of those diseases which are usually supposed to arise from acrimony. 
The nature of this book does not allow of minute details of the virtues of plants, but I can 
assure the medical practitioner that this is well worth his attention. Dr. Butter says, 
obstinate cases of gonorrhaea virulenta may be safely cured by doses of ten grains of the 
inspissated juice; a mode of treatment communicated to him by Baron Storck. (Mr. 
Whately, surgeon in London, bears ample testimony to the beneficial effects of the powder 
