Conium maculatum 399 BC, and his trial resulted in a death sentence. Although Socrates could have avoided death, he decided to take a potent infusion of the hemlock plant. Plato described Socrates' death in the "Phaedo": Although many have questioned whether this is a factual account, it is the perspective of Bloch that careful attention to Plato's words, modern and ancient medicine and other ancient Greek sources point to this account being consistent with "Conium" poisoning. Conium maculatum Conium maculatum, the hemlock or poison hemlock, is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and
Ludwigia (plant) Ludwigia (plant) Ludwigia (primrose-willow, water-purslane, or water-primrose) is a genus of about 82 species of aquatic plants with a cosmopolitan but mainly tropical distribution. At current, there is much debate among botanists and plant taxonomists as to the classification of many "Ludwigia" species. Botanists from the US Department of Agriculture are currently doing genetic analyses on plants from the Western US and South America to better classify members of this genus. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus after Christian Gottlieb Ludwig (1709-1773), a German botanist, who was apparently not amused by this honour. A larger number of fossil seeds