Z* I [ 2315 ]
O E N A N T H E crocata.
Hemlock Water Dropwort.
PENTANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Flowers irregular: those o f the disk
sessile and abortive. Fruit crowned with the
calyx and styles ; its bark corky._
Spec. Char. All the leaflets wedge-shaped, cut, nearly
equal.
Syn. Oenanthe crocata. Linn. Sp. PI. 365. Sm. Fl.
Brit. 3 1 9 . Iluds. 121. With. 3 0 2 . Hull. ed. 2. 8.3.'
Sibth. 99. Jacq. Hort. Vind. v. 3. 32. t. 55.
Woodv. Suppl. t. 267.
Oe. cicute facie Lobelii. Rail Syn. 210 .
H A P P I L l this very noxious plant is of rare occurrence.
W e received specimens from Mr. W . Borrer. It grows in watery
situations about the brinks of great rivers, as the Thames,
and others, flowering in July.
The root is perennial, composed of numerous ovate fleshy
knobs, whose juice is peculiarly virulent. The stems are from
two to five feet high, erect, branched, leafy, round, furrowed.
Leaves dark green, bipinnate; their leaflets all nearly similar,
mostly opposite, sessile, wedge-shaped or somewhat deltoid,
more or less cut, veiny, smooth. Umbels terminal, large, convex,
of many general and partial rays. General and partial
involucrum various in form; sometimes linear and undivided;
often dilated and leafy. Flowers white, often with purplish
styles and anthers, slightly radiant. Calyx incurved. Fruit
oblong, crowned with the erect permanent styles.
The whole herb contains a fetid yellow juice, and is very
poisonous. Ehret found a giddiness affect him while drawing
it. Sir Thomas Frankland has known brood mares sometimes
to eat the root, and to die in consequence,
2M