Flora Medica

PIMPINELLA.Spreng. in JR. and S. vi. 407. "AVKTOV, Dioscorides. Egypt,the island of Scio, the Levant. (Anise.)Stem smooth, erect, branched. Radical leaves roundish, heartshaped,lobed,cut-serrated; cauliue biternate with linear-lanceolate rathercuneate acuminate segments. Umbels on long stalks, 9-10-rayed, naked ;partial ones with a few subulate reflexed bracts. Flowers white.Styles subulate, spreading, long, capitate. Fruit ovate, Inline long,dull brown, slightly downy, not at all shining, with the ridges equidistant,elevated, sometimes rather wavy, paler than the channels.missure broad and flat. The officinal preparations, especially the aquaanisi, are employed to relieve flatulence, colicky pains, especially ofchildren. Nurses sometimes take it to promote the secretion of milk.It has also been used in pulmonary affections. Its effects are condimentary,stimulant and carminative.(ENANTHE.Calyx permanent, growing rather larger after flowering. Petalsobovate, emarginate with an inflexed lobe. Disk conical.Fruit cylindrical ovate, surmounted by long erect styles. Halffruitswith 5 convex obtuse ridges, of which the marginal onesare a little the broadest ;channels with single vittae. Usuallyaquatic herbs. Umbels compound. Common involucre variable,often wanting ; partial many-leaved. Flowers of the raylong-stalked, abortive ;of the disk sessile or nearly so and fertile.Petals white.85. CE. crocata Linn. sp. 365. DC.prodr.iv. 138. Eng.Bot. t. 2313. S. and C. i. t. 35. Smith. Eng. fl.ii. 71.Ditches, banks of rivers, wet places, common in the west ofEurope. (Dead-tongue, Hemlock-dropwort.)Root of many fleshy knobs, abounding with an orange-coloured, fetid,very poisonous juice, which also exudes less plentifully from all partsof the herb, when wounded. Stem from 2 to 5 feet high, muchbranched, somewhat forked, leafy, round, furrowed, hollow. Leavesof a dark shining green, doubly pinnate, with generally opposite,stalked, wedge-shaped, variously and deeply cut leaflets ;those of thelowermost leaves rather the broadest all ; veiny and smooth. Umbelslarge, terminal, stalked, convex, of many general rays, and still morecopious partial ones. General as well as partial bracts various innumber and shape, either linear and undivided, or dilated and partiallyleafy or almost obliterated. Flowers white, or tinged with purple,very numerous and crowded, slightly radiant ;the outer stalked andbarren, the central sessile and fertile. Fruit very pale brown, 2 lineslong, nearly cylindrical calyx teeth very small, ; persistent, incurved ;styles brownish purple, straight, permanent, about half the length ofthe fruit, or rather shorter ; ridges convex, the dorsal ones very narrow,the lateral ones very broad. A dangerously poisonous plant,the cause of many fatal accidents. Dr. Christison considers it the mostenergetic of the narcotico-acrid apiaceas. It is difficult to conceive howit should be mistaken for hemlock by herb gatherers, as Godefroi asserts.The roots are usually the part eaten by those who fall victims to it,39 D 4