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BMEM 2010: The Mysterious Hemlock
Mar. 4th, 2010 08:32 pmI used to be puzzled by the following lines in "The Lay of Luthien."
The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair..
A hemlock is a tall, evergreen tree, not a flower. Or is it? Some members of the parsley family bear umbels of white flowers and are called hemlocks (including the poison hemlock formerly used as a means of execution). Angelica and Queen Anne's Lace (a wild version of the carrot) are close relatives.
The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair..
A hemlock is a tall, evergreen tree, not a flower. Or is it? Some members of the parsley family bear umbels of white flowers and are called hemlocks (including the poison hemlock formerly used as a means of execution). Angelica and Queen Anne's Lace (a wild version of the carrot) are close relatives.
