PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Cicuta. 
385 
Var. 2. Fine-leaved. 
Grows in running streams. The leaves are divided like those of Ranunculus 
aquatilis in the same situations. Sometimes, though rarely, when the 
plant grows in an angle out of the rapid course of the stream, it produces 
flowers. Relhan. Ray mentions having observed it between Woodstock 
and Blenheim, near the bridge. 
CICU'TA. # Flowers uniform, all fertile : Fruit nearly ovate, 
ribbed. 
C. viro^sa. Umbels opposite the leaves: leaf-stalks bordered, blunt: 
(leaves twice ternate. E.) 
( E. Bot. 479. E,) — Phil. Tr. Ahr. x. 23. at p. 772 — Woodv. 268— FI. Dan. 
208— Blackw. 574. a, b , c. — Gunn. 2 — Riv. Pent. 77. Cicutaria — Dod. 
589. 3— Lob. Obs. 105. 2, and Ic. i. 208. 2— Ger. Em.256. 4— Park. 1241. 
3— J. B. iii. 2. 175. 2— Pet. 28. 1— H. Ox. ix. 5. 4. 
(Root tuberous, hollow, with whorled fibres, and transverse partitions. 
Leafits one to two inches long, remarkably decurrent. Stem three or 
four feet high, reddish towards the bottom, branched, furrowed, leafy, 
hollow. E.) Leaves, serratures sometimes brown. Fruit-stalks sheathed 
at the b^se by the leaf-stalks. Receptacles of the spokes reddish. Leaves 
bright green, with about seven pairs of little leaves , which are variously 
divided and indented. Petals yellowish green, (or white, small, much 
indexed. Styles wide apart in the fruit. E.) 
Water Cowbane. Long-leaved Water Hemlock. Sides of pools 
and rivers. Pond two miles from Northwich on the side of the road to 
Chester. Mr. Wood. Near Norwich. Mr. Pitchford. Near Yarmouth. 
Mr. Woodward. Kingston pool, near Stafford. Stokes. Lochs of Forfar and 
Restenet. Mr. Brown. Mr. Slaney’s pool dam, Hatton, Shropshire. (In 
the Leen, near the Rock holes, in Nottingham Park. Pulteney. Ditches 
near Stirling. Mr. Winch. Keswick; banks of the Irthing at Walton, 
and Irthington. Hutchinson. Lochend; the only station, near Edin¬ 
burgh. Greville. E.) P. July—Aug.t 
pig dung. In the winter the roots and stem, dissected by the influence of the weather, 
present a very curious skeleton or net work. Horses, sheep, and goats eat it. Swine are 
not fond of it. Cows refuse it. Ckrysomela P/iellandria, and the Gilt Leplura are found 
upon the roots. 
* (In reference to the internode or space between the joints ; as in a reed or Pan’s 
pipe. E.) 
+ This is one of the rankest of our vegetable poisons. (Pulteney describes it as i( the 
most virulent of all our English productions.” It has been generally considered destruc¬ 
tive to man and beast; but goats have long been known to devour it with impunity. 
--“ videre licet pinguescere saipe Cicuta ■ 
Barbigeras pecudes, hominique est acre venenum.” Lucret. 
Its dreadful effects are quickly manifest. Pain of the pericardia, loss of speech, and of all 
the senses, with terrible convulsions ; the mouth so strongly closed as not to be forced 
open, blood from the ears, and horrible distortion of the eyes, precede the fatal catas¬ 
trophe, which itself supervenes in the short space of half an hour! Whether this plant 
was an ingredient in the Athenian death-draught, cannot now be ascertained. In Nor¬ 
way its use in medicine has been prohibited. Be careful to avoid confounding this herb with 
the officinal Cicuta , (Conium maculatum ), which does not grow in water, and has a spotted 
stem. E.) Numerous instances are recorded of its fatality to the human species in a 
treatise upon it by Wepfer, and Haller’s Hist. Helv. n. 781. See also an account of its 
deleterious effects in Phil.Tr.Abr. x. Early in the spring, when it grows in water, cows 
often eat it, and are killed by it; but as the summer advances, and its scent becomes 
stronger, they carefully avoid it. 
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