Plant
Hemlock
Picture to come.
A tall plant of damp ground with finely divided leaves, purple-spotted stems and a foul smell. Every part is deadly poisonous. It was known in Anglo-Saxon medicine, and later medieval surgeons used it with henbane and opium in 'dwale', a sleeping draught given before operations, which they warned was dangerous. It can be mistaken for harmless relatives such as cow parsley.
Caveats (confidence: medium)
Dwale is documented mainly in later medieval sources; details of 12th-century use are uncertain.
Sources: botanical.com · canterbury-archaeology.org.uk
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