Important: Safety Warning
This page gives doses of a plant that is acutely poisonous. Foxglove, aconite, deadly nightshade, henbane, thorn-apple and meadow saffron have all killed at quantities close to those prescribed here, and for several of them the fatal dose is a fraction of a teaspoonful. There is no safe domestic preparation of these plants, no reliable way to judge the strength of one you have gathered, and no antidote you could apply at home. Do not gather, prepare, taste or swallow any part of the plant described on this page.
In addition, this page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Least Water Parsnep
Description. It rises from many small fibres, with round, striated, and branched stalks, about six inches high. The leaves are placed alternately on these, broad and short, and dentated, of a pale green, not resembling those which rise first from the root. The flowers are small and white, and stand at the tops of the branches in little umbels; and the seed is striated and brown. Place. It is common in shallow waters.
Time. It flowers in June.
Government and virtues. It is a species of the waterhemlock, and under the government of Mercury; very deleterious if inwardly used; but, where honewort is not to be found, may be used instead, in removing hard swellings. A decoction with bran or malt is good for eruptions of the skin.