Tab. 5724. 



MONIZIA EDTJLIS. 



Cenoula da Bocha, or Bock Carrot. 



Nat. Ord. Umbellieebje.— Pentandbia Dig Yin a. 



Gen. Char. Calycis dentes obsoleti. Petala oblonga, lanceolate apice 

 angustata incurva, dorso pilosa. Discus depressus. Stamina incurva. 

 Jfruetuf oblongus, a dorso compressus, carpellis dorso leviter convexis non 

 alatis, jugis omnibus crassis obtusis; primaria, lateralibus juxta commis- 

 suram sitis mconspicuis ; secundaria, dorsalibus primariis conformibus, la- 

 teralibus multo majoribus cum plana commissural! continuis, fungosis ; 

 vittsB sub jugis secundariis solitariae. Carpophorum 2-partitum. Semen 

 complanatum.— Frutex erectus, caudice simplici v. diviso, elato, crassitie 

 brachn hvmam. Folia ad apicem caudicis v. ramuli conferta, recurva, ob- 

 longa v. ovato-oblonga, Z^-pinnatisecta ; foliolis vemicosis incisis. Um- 

 beiije amplce ; involucri et involucelli hractece 6-10, lineari-lanceolata. Flores 

 parvi, albi. 



Monizia edulis. Lowe, Manual of Flora of Madeira, p. 365, et Hook. 

 Kew Journ. JBot. v. 8. p. 295. 



The Madeiran group of islands possesses two of the very 

 few frutescent Umbelliferae hitherto discovered; both are 

 plants of excessive rarity and singularity, and both have 

 flowered and fruited in the Royal Gardens within six months 

 of one another; of these, one is the subject of the present 

 P late, the other is Thapsia decipiens (Tab. nostr. 5670). 



Monizia was discovered by my friend the Rev. R. Lowe, M. A., 

 on sea-cliffs on the east side of the Great Deserta Island, 

 about one thousand feet above the sea, in clefts, hollows, and 

 ledges ; there he describes it as having a stem a foot or more 

 high, but in the Royal Gardens the largest specimen at- 

 tained a height of nearly seven feet before flowering, and the 

 smallest (two have flowered) about two feet ; these flowered 

 within a few weeks of one another in April and May. The 

 root, which is like a branched carrot, and black externally. 

 contains a pure white farinaceous substance, like that of the 

 common Pig-nut (Bunium flexuosum), which it resembles in 

 taste, and when boiled is compared to a bad, stringy parsnip. 



AUGUST 1st, 1868. 



