Volume 3

The flowering plants, grasses, sedges, and ferns of Great Britain : and their allies the club mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails / by Anne Pratt.

  • Pratt, Anne, 1806-1893.
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The flowering plants, grasses, sedges, and ferns of Great Britain : and their allies the club mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails / by Anne Pratt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    It is the Eringio of the Italians, and the Car do corredor of the Spaniards. 2. E. campestre (Field-Eryngo).—Root-leaves some- what ternate, lobes pinnatifid; stem-leaves clasping, twice pinnatifid, all with spiny teeth ; leaves of the involucre spinous ; scales of the receptacle entire. Plant perennial. This rare species much resembles the Sea Holly, but is more bushy, taller, and more slender. It formerly grew in sandy fields at Stonehouse, in Devonshire; but is now extinct there, as it also is on a spot near Daventry, where it formerly grew. The petals are purplish, or white, and may be seen on the chaffy recep- tacle in July and August. Its roots, when dried and powdered, are said to form the chief ingredient of a medicine celebrated in Spain as a remedy against the bites of serpents. Gerarde said of our sea-side species, that it was “ good for such as were bitten by any venomous animal.” * * Umbels compound; fruit of two fattened lobes, neither priclclg nor beaked. 4. Cicuta (Water Hemlock). 1. C. viro'sa (Cowbane, or Water-Hemlock).—Stem hollow, branched ; lower leaves on long stalks, pinnate ; upper ones twice ternate ; umbels stalked. Plant per- ennial. Like many of our umbelliferous plants which grow in the water, this herb is highly poisonous, and various instances of its fatal effects are on record. Some animals, as sheep, goats, and horses, eat it with impu- nity, but to cows it proves very deleterious. Cattle aie