Dominion Museum HEMLOCK AND FENNEL

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 130, 26 February 1937, Page 17

Dominion Museum HEMLOCK AND FENNEL

Plants That Flourish In

Waste Areas

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

In the cultured days of early Greece, capital punishment was a refined business; the criminal was made to drink a decoction from a poisonous plant; and this was the fate of Socrates, .who died from the effects of hemlock poisoning. , , Hemlock is one of two plants that are flourishing in waste places at the present time. These are closely related, somewhat, similar, ami occasionally are mistaken for each other, with possibly dire consequences. The second plant is the fennel, a weed which, to an increasing degree, is taking charge of many acres of land round Wellington city, covering ugly faces and tips with a mist of golden green. Both of these plants belong to the uinbelliferae family, and occur in similar situations. They grow several feet in height, with coarse, hollow stems and large, divided leaves, and, although the flower heads are much divided in both, the similarity ends there, for the fennel has deep yellow-green flowers, while hemlock heads are white, with each petal deeply divided. The leaves are easily distinguished. The most striking feature of fennel is the very finely-divided leaves, which may be two feet long, subdivided into several pairs of leaflets, all very slender and stringy, making a dark, glossy, green network round the stem. Hemlock, on the other hand, has leaves often as long as those of fennel, but much more coarsely divided, with several pairs of opposite leaflets which are quite smooth and edged by coarse teeth minutely tipped by a short, white point.

Hemlock’s Characteristics. The characteristic feature by which hemlock may be distinguished from all other plants is the purple-red mottlings on the smooth stem. According to an old English legend, these stems represent the brand that was placed on Cain’s brow after he had committed murder. The hemlock plant has a characteristic mousey smell, but, nevertheless, it sometimes is mistaken and consumed for other edible plants—poisoning having occurred from eating hemlock roots in mistake for~parsnii)s, the leaves in error for parsley, and the seeds for anise seed; while there is danger of the hollow stems being used as whistles by children. The poisonous substance occurs ail through the plant and forms a narcotic juice containing an oily alkaloid of which a few' drops are fatal. The naming of the hemlock plant illustrates well the reason of binomial scientific nomenclature—“conium” is derived from the Greek word “to whirl about,” since the poison from this plant causes vertigo and death, while “masculatum” is a Latin derivative meaning “spotted,” which, as explained above, is Hie characteristic feature of* this plant. The properties of fennel, on the other hand, are' harmless and useful. The whole plant has a strong, bitter smell, but now only the seed is used for pharmaceutical purposes, although in past time the foliage was used for a variety of purposes, such as a protection against witchcraft and evil spirits on Midsummer’s Day, as a help to poor people to satisfy their hunger cravings on fast days, and in modern days the seed extract is an ingredient of the well-known licorice powder. A more popular use for this plant lies in its obnoxious effect on fleas, which renders it a most useful adjunct in kennels and stables.

Contributed by the Dominion Museum