POISON HEMLOCK IS A VERY COMMON AND DEADLY WEED

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 October 1946, Page 2

POISON HEMLOCK IS A VERY COMMON AND DEADLY WEED

The words of the Hawera district coroner, Mr. A. Grant, on the menace of hemlock which caused the death of la child at Hawera recently, has brought many inquiries: Is it common? How does it grow? And where? It is very common indeed, growing wherever weeds odd corners of gardens and backyards, on vacant sections, on the roadsides, in public reserves, probably, too. In some school grounds, for it is freeseeding and is persistent, and though it is so common it is not well known for what it is. If rubbed or bruised the leaves and stems have an unpleasant ‘‘mousy’’ smell, but small children can be strangely perverse, and there have been other fatal cases of poisoning through a fatal leaning to experiment with new tastes; or they may thlnlr the much-branched leaf to be parsley, though really there Is no great similarity.

At this time of the year, when hemlock is shooting up, a foot or 1S inches (it. may grow four or five feet high), it can be rooted out most effectively. Left to seed, it is with you for years, for the seeding is prolific, and there will be a hundred, or hundreds, of seedlings next spring. It is of the parsley family, and has a root like a* small, and hairy parsnip. The leaves are a shining dark green. The stems are bright green, round and hollow, and are generally splotched with purple. There are no hairs on either leaves or stems.

The purple-splotched stem Is the feature by which the poison hemlock can most readily be distinguished from other plants somewhat resembling it.

If there is a weed like that at home, root it out now —root as well as top—and burn it. The seed is more dangerous than the leaf, for it contains a really deadly percentage of the alkaloid conine, as well as two other alkaloids.

The Athenians brewed a poison cup from hemlock for criminals and unpopular politicians, and thus It was that Socrates died. The alkaloids have a plane in medicine, but none lr small children’s stomachs.