Harry. What plant is that man gathering under the hedge?

George. I don’t know; but the boys call the stalks hexes, and blow through them.

Har. I have seen them; but I want to know the plant.

Geo. Will you please to tell us, sir, what it is?

Tutor. It is hemlock.

Geo. Hemlock is poison is it not?

Tut. Yes, in some degree; and it is also a medicine; that man is gathering it for the apothecaries.

Har. I should like to know it.

Tut. Well then—go and bring one.

Geo. I think I have seen a great many of this sort.

Tut. Perhaps you may; but there are many other kinds of plants extremely like it. It is one of a large family called the umbelliferous, which contains both food, physic, and poison. It will be worth while for you to know something about them, so let us examine this hemlock closely. You see this tall hollow stalk, which divides into several branches, from each of which spring spokes or rundles, as they are called, of flower-stalks. You see they are like rays from a circle, or the spokes of a wheel.

Har. Or like the sticks of an umbrella.

Tut. True; and they are called umbels, which has the same derivation. If you pursue one of these rundles or umbels, you will find that each stick or spoke terminates in another set of smaller stalks, each of which bears a single small flower.

Geo. They are small ones, indeed!

Tut. But if you look sharply, I dare say your eyes are good enough to distinguish that they are divided into five leaves, and furnished with five chives and two pistils in the middle.

Har. I can see them.

Geo. And so can I.

Tut. The pistils are succeeded by a sort of fruit, which is a twin-seed joined in the middle, as you may see in this rundle that is past flowering. Here I divide one of them into two.

Geo. Would each of these grow?

Tut. Yes. Well, this is the structure of the flowering part of the umbelliferous tribe. Now for the leaf. Pluck one.

Har. Is this one leaf, or many?

Tut. It is properly one, but it is cut and divided into many portions. From this mid-rib spring smaller leaves set opposite each other; and from the rib of each of these proceed others, which themselves are also divided. These are called doubly or trebly pinnated leaves; and most of the umbelliferous plants, but not all, have leaves of this kind.

Har. It is like a parsley-leaf.

Tut. True—and parsley is one of the same tribe, and hemlock and others are sometimes mistaken for it.

Geo. How curiously the stalk of this hemlock is spotted!

Tut. Yes. That is one of the marks by which it is known. It is also distinguished by its peculiar smell, and by other circumstances which you can only understand when you have compared a number of the tribe. I will now tell you about some others, the names of which you are probably acquainted with. In the first place, there are carrots and parsnips.

Har. Carrots and parsnips!—they are not poisons, I am sure.

Geo. I remember, now, that carrots have such a leaf as this.

Tut. They have. It is the roots of these, you know, that are eaten. But we eat the leaves of parsley and fennel, which are of the same class. Celery is another, the stalks of which are chiefly used, made white by trenching up the earth about them. The stalks of angelica are used differently.

Har. I know how—candied.

Tut. Yes. Then there are many of which the seeds are used. There is caraway.

Har. What, the seeds that are put into cakes and comfits?

Tut. Yes. They are warm and pungent to the taste; and so are the seeds of many others of the umbelliferous plants, as coriander, fennel, wild carrot, angelica, anise, cummin, and dill. All these are employed in food or medicine, and are good in warming or strengthening the stomach.

Har. Those are pleasant medicines enough.

Tut. They are; but you will not say the same of some others of the class, which are noted medicines too; such as the plant yielding asafoetida, and several more, from which what are called the fetid gums are produced.

Geo. Asafoetida!—that’s nasty stuff, I know; does it grow here?

Tut. No; and most of the sweet seeds I before mentioned come from abroad too. Now I will tell you of some of the poisons.

Har. Hemlock is one that we know already.

Tut. Yes. Then there is another kind that grows in the water, and is more poisonous, called water-hemlock. Another is a large plant growing in ditches, with leaves extremely like celery, called hemlock-dropwort. Another, common in drier situations, and distinguished by leaves less divided than most of the class, is cow-parsnip, or madnep. Of some of these the leaves, of others the root, is most poisonous. Their effects are to make the head giddy, bring on stupidity or delirium, and cause violent sickness. The Athenians used to put criminals to death by making them drink the juice of a kind of hemlock growing in that country, as you may read in the life of that excellent philosopher, Socrates, who was killed in that manner.

Har. What was he killed for?

Tut. Because he was wiser and better than his fellow-citizens. Among us it is only by accident that mischief is done by these plants. I remember a melancholy instance of a poor boy, who, in rambling about the fields with his little brothers and sisters, chanced to meet with a root of hemlock-dropwort. It looked so white and nice, that he was tempted to eat a good deal of it. The other children also ate some, but not so much. When they got home they were all taken very ill. The eldest boy, who had eaten most, died in great agony. The others recovered, after suffering a great deal.

Geo. Is there any way of preventing their bad effects?

Tut. The best way is to clear the stomach as soon as possible by a strong vomit and large draughts of warm water. After that, vinegar is useful in removing the disorder of the head.

Har. But are the roots sweet and pleasant, that people should be tempted to eat them?

Tut. Several of them are. There is a small plant of the tribe, the root of which is much sought after by boys, who dig for it with their knives It is round, and called earth-nut, or pig-nut.

Geo. But that’s not poison, I suppose?

Tut. No; but it is not very wholesome. I believe, however, that the roots of the most poisonous become innocent by boiling. I have heard that boiled hemlock roots are as good as carrots.

Geo. I think I should not like to eat them, however. But pray, why should there be any poisons at all?

Tut. What we call poisons, are only hurtful to particular animals. They are the proper food of others, and no doubt do more good than hurt in the creation. Most of the things that are poisonous to us in large quantities, are useful medicines in small ones; and we have reason bestowed upon us, to guard us against mischief. Other animals, in general, refuse by instinct what would prove hurtful to them. You see beneath yonder hedge a great crop of tall flourishing plants with white flowers. They are of the umbelliferous family, and are called wild cicely, or cow-weed. The latter name is given them, because the cows will not touch them, though the pasture be ever so bare.

Har. Would they poison them?

Tut. Perhaps they would: at least they are not proper food for them. We will go and examine them, and I will show you how they differ from hemlock, for which they are sometimes mistaken.

Geo. I should like to get some of these plants, and dry them.

Tut. You shall, and write down the names of them all, and learn to know the innocent from the hurtful.

Geo. That will be very useful.

Tut. It will. Remember now the general character of the umbelliferous plants. The flower-stalks are divided into spokes or umbels, which are again divided into others, each of them terminated by a small, five-leaved flower, having five chives and two pistils, succeeded by a twin-seed. Their leaves are generally finely divided. You will soon know them, after having examined two or three of the tribe. Remember, too, that they are a suspicious race, and not to be made free with till you are well acquainted with them.