ON  THE  SEEDS  CF  PHELLANDRIUM  AQUATICUM. 
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ON  THE  SEEDS  OF  PHELLANDRIUM  AQUATICUM. 
By  Charles  Fronefield,  Jr. 
(Extracted  from  an  Inaugural] Essay.) 
The  fine-leaved  water  hemlock  belongs  to  the  natural  order 
Apiaceae  or  UmbelHferas.  Sexual  system,  Pentandria  Digynia. 
This  plant  is  biennial  or  perennial,  is  a  native  of  Europe,  fre- 
quenting many  of  its  water  courses,  rising  to  the  height  of  from 
two  to  four  feet.  The  fruit  or  seeds  are  from  a  line  to  a  line 
and  a  half  in  length,  ovate  oblong,  narrow  above,  somewhat 
compressed,  marked  with  ten  delicate  ribs  running  the  length 
of  the  seeds  and  covered  with  the  remains  of  a  calyx,  and  with 
the  erect  or  reverted  styles.  What  is  generally  regarded  as 
one  seed  is  in  reality  two,  closely  united  at  their  sides,  and  of  a 
yellowish  brown  color. 
The  water  hemlock  blooms  like  the  Conium  maculatum,  in 
umbelliferous  clusters,  in  June  and  July.  The  fresh  leaves  are 
said  to  be  injurious,  and  cattle  after  having  eaten  them  are 
seized  with  a  sort  of  paralysis.  By  drying  they  are  said  to  lose 
their  deleterious  properties  ;  the  odor  of  the  recent  seeds  is  ex- 
ceedingly strong  and  disagreeable.  Their  taste  is  oily,  acrid, 
and  aromatic.  The  narcotic  properties  of  the  plant  are  said  to 
vary  according  to  the  weather  and  climate,  flourishing  best  in  hot, 
dry  seasons.  The  seeds  should  be  gathered  in  the  autumn,  the 
leaves  in  the  flowering  season.  The  carefully  dried  seeds  re- 
tain much  of  their  strong  and  sickening  odor.  The  decoction, 
however,  has  but  little  taste,  and  an  extract  resulting  from  its 
evaporation  is  nearly  inert,  from  which  circumstance  it  may  be 
inferred  that  the  active  principle  is  volatile  or  decomposible  at 
the  boiling  temperature.  By  a  series  of  experiments  the  author 
satisfied  himself  of  the  presence  in  these  seed  of  albumen,  gum, 
a  fatty  resin,  volatile  oil,  an  alkaloid  which  he  esteems  to  be 
conia,  and  in  the  ashes  he  detected  alumina,  lime,  iron  and 
magnesia.  By  distilling  the  ground  seeds  with  water,  a  light 
yellow  colored  volatile  oil  is  obtained,  lighter  than  water,  and 
possessing  the  aromatic  odor  of  the  plant. 
When  the  ground  seeds  are  digested  in  ether,  they  yield  by 
its  evaporation  a  dark  brownish  black  extract,  containing  a  fixed 
oil  and  a  resin,  and  having  the  smell  of  the  plant  in  a  high 
gree,  as  it  retains  the  volatile  oil  also. 
