The roots of the sweet Cicely are prized by country children for their pleasant flavor. Great care should be taken not to confound this plant with the water-hemlock, which is very poisonous, and which it greatly resembles, although flowering earlier in the year. The generic name is from two Greek words which signify scent and root.
Water-parsnip.
Sium cicutæfolium. Parsley Family (p. [15]).
Two to six feet high. Stem.—Stout. Leaves.—Divided into from three to eight pairs of sharply toothed leaflets. Flowers.—White, in compound umbels.
This plant is found growing in water or wet places throughout North America.
Arrow-head.
Sagittaria variabilis. Water-plantain Family.
Scape.—A few inches to several feet high. Leaves.—Arrow-shaped. Flowers.—White, unisexual, in whorls of three on the leafless scape. Calyx.—Of three sepals. Corolla.—Of three white, rounded petals. Stamens and Pistils.—Indefinite in number, occurring in different flowers, the lower whorls of flowers usually being pistillate, the upper staminate.
Among our water-flowers none are more delicately lovely than those of the arrow-head. Fortunately the ugly and inconspicuous female flowers grow on the lower whorls, while the male ones, with their snowy petals and golden centres, are arranged about the upper part of the scape, where the eye first falls. It is a pleasure to chance upon a slow stream whose margins are bordered with these fragile blossoms and bright, arrow-shaped leaves.
Water-plantain.
Alisma Plantago. Water-plantain Family.
Scape.—One to three feet high, bearing the flowers in whorled, panicled branches. Leaves.—From the root, oblong, lance-shaped or linear, mostly rounded or heart-shaped at base. Flowers.—White or pale pink, small, in large, loose clusters which branch from the scape. Calyx.—Of three sepals. Corolla.—Of three petals. Stamens.—Usually six. Pistils.—Many, on a flattened receptacle.
The water-plantain is nearly related to the arrow-head, and is often found blossoming with it in marshy places or shallow water.