Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Hemlock, the Common

HEMLOCK, or Conium, L. a genus of plants comprising five species; one of which is a native of Britain, namely, the maculatum, Common Hemlock; or Kex, a biennial plant, growing in hedges, orchards, rubbish, on cultivated ground and dunghills; it flowers in the months of June and July. Its stalk is more than a yard high, sometimes an inch thick, hollow, marked with many dark-red spots, and knotty; its umbels consist of numerous small white flowers, and the fruit resembles aniseed, but has an unpleasant taste. The whole plant is poisonous; though its leaves were formerly often employed in schirrous tumors of the breast, and cancers; in which painful disorder, though it may not in every case effect a cure, it is a very useful medicine, when duly prepared and administered.

As the Common Hemlock, however, is one of the most deleterious vegetables of this climate, we advise the reader to refrain from meddling with this precarious medicine, and to intrust its preparation to professional hands. If inadvertently taken, this species, as well as the two following kinds of the Hemlock, require similar antidotes and treatment with the Hellebore, of which we have treated in the preceding article.