Flora Medica

CONIUM.CONIUM.Calyx obsolete. Petals obcordate, somewhat emarginate,with a very short inflexed lobe. Fruit compressed at the side,ovate. Half-fruits with 5 prominent equal undulated ridges ofwhich the lateral are on the border. Channels with many striaebut no vittae. Biennials. Root fusiform. Stem taper branched.Leaves decompound. Both involucres 3-5-leaved, the partialone halved. Flowers white, all fertile.124. C. maculatum Linn. sp. 349. Smith Eng. Fl. ii. 66.DC. prodr. iv. 242. Eng. Bot. 1. 1191. N. and E. pi. med.t. 282. handb. iii. 27. S. and C. i. t. 13. Perdra in Med. gaz.xix. 763. Kuvstw Dioscorid. In waste places throughoutEurope, the East of Asia ; and the cultivated parts of America(introduced). (Hemlock.)Root tap-shaped, whitish, fleshy. Stem from 3 to 5 feet high, erect,round, hollow, glaucous, polished, copiously spotted and dotted withdull purple. Leaves very large and repeatedly compound; leafletsovate, closely and sharply pinnatifid, with the lower lobes incised, of adeep shining green, on long furrowed footstalks, sheathing at the base.Umbels terminal, very numerous, erect, compound all ; many-rayed andsmooth. General bracts ovate, cuspidate, with membranous edges.Flowers numerous, white, all fertile; the outermost very slightlyirregular. Fruit 1| line long, ovate, compressed, a pale sage-green;primary ridges elevated, sharp, wavy commissure and channels ; finelywrinkled. A powerfully narcotico-acrid plant, occasioning stupor,delirium, palsy, and asphixia; some authors state that it producesdeath in the most dreadful convulsions, but this is at variance with thethe accounts of Dr. Christison and Mr. Pereira. It is recommended incancerous and scrophulous disorders, syphilis, dropsy, epilepsy, as ananodyne, &c. &c. It is stated by Aretaeus to be anti-aphrodisiac, bySto'^ck and Bergius to be the reverse. The leaves are the parts usuallyemployed but the preparations from them are frequently inert. Thismay arise in part from the manner of preparing them or from the timewhen they have been collected. Fothergill long since stated, what isquite conformable to theory, that Coninm was to be obtained in itsmost active state when the flowers are just past, the fruit forming, andthe plant inclining to yellow, and that the quality of that collectedwhen the herbage is strong and succulent is very inferior. Fot/iergill'sWorks, 266. Mr. Pereira and Dr. Christison recommend an alcoholictincture of the bruised ripe fruit, instead of the leaves.SMYRNIUM.Calyx obsolete. Petals lanceolate or elliptical, entire, acuminate,inflexed at the point. Fruit contracted at the side, didy_mous. Half fruits almost globose, reniform, with 3 fine prominentdorsal ridges, and 2 marginal ones almost obliterated.Channels with many vittae. Seed involute. Upright smoothbiennials. Root fleshy. Leaves various. Umbels terminal. In-57