152 
CLASS PENTANDRXA. 
quainted the people with the poisonous qualities of the plant, and 
thus enabled them to provide against the danger by fencing in the 
marsh. The poison hemlock (Conium mciculatum) has a peculiarly 
unpleasant, nauseous smell; its stalk is large and spotted, from 
whence its specific name mciculatum , which signifies spotted. This 
plant is supposed to be the poison so fatally administered by the 
Athenians to Socrates and Phocion. 
The umbellate plants which grow on dry ground are aromatic; as 
dill, and fennel; those which grow in wet places, or the aquatic 
species, are among the most deadly poisons; as water parsnip, &c. 
Plants of this family are not in general so beautiful to the sight, nor 
so interesting, as objects of botanical analysis, as many others.* 
In order to assist you in analyzing plants of this family, we will il¬ 
lustrate their botanical characters by a sketch of the coriander. 
1. Calyx, a; this is of that kind called an involucrum ; the leaves 
which you see at the foot of the universal umbel , form what is called 
the general involucrum ; the leaves which are at the foot of the par¬ 
tial umbel , form a partial involucrum. Both of these involucrums 
are pinnatifid , or have the leaves divided. 
2. Corolla, b; this is represented as magnified ; you can see that it 
has five petals, inflected, or bent inwards." 
3. Stamens, five, anthers somewhat divided. 
4. Pistils, two, reflexed or bent back, as may be seen on the seed 
c, where the stigmas are permanent. 
5. Pericarp, is wanting in all umbellate plants. 
6. Seed, c, is round, with its two styles at the summit; it consists 
of two carpels. 
* Botanists in general shrink from the study of the Umbelliferee ; nor have these 
plants much beauty in the eyes of amateurs; but they will repay the trouble of a care¬ 
ful observation. The late M. Cusson of Montpelier bestowed more pains upon them 
than any other botanist has ever done; but the world has, as yet, been favoured with 
only a part of his remarks. His labours met with a most ungrateful check, in the un- 
kinaness and mortifying stupidity of his wife, who, in his absence from home, is re¬ 
corded to have destroyed his whole herbarium, scraping off the dried specimens for the 
sake of the paper on which they were pasted ! — Sir James Edward Smith's Intro¬ 
duction to Botany 
What is said of the poison hemlock ?—Describe Fig. 128. 
