524 _ UMBELLIFER (Sond.) 
Orver LXVII. UMBELLIFERZ, Juss. 
(By W. SonDER). 
Flowers usually perfect, in umbels, small. Calya adhering to the 
ovary; its margin 5-toothed or obsolete. Petals 5, inserted on the 
outside of a fleshy, epigynous disc (stylopodiwm), mostly with inflexed 
points, the inflexed portion connate with the middle vein of the lamina ; 
estivation slightly imbricate or valvate. Stamens 5, alternate with the 
petals; anthers 2-celled. Ovary of 2-carpels, 2-celled; ovules solitary, 
pendulous ; styles 2, distinct. Fruit dry, consisting of two easily 
separable carpels (mericarps), which cohere by their inner face (com- 
missure) to a common, filiform axis (carpophore), but at maturity 
separate from it and are for a time pendulous from its summit: each 
mericarp is indehiscent, marked with 5 longitudinal ( primary ) ribs, 
one opposite each petal and each stamen, and often also with 4 (secon- 
dary) intermediate ribs, the ribs being separated by furrows. In the 
substance of the pericarp are linear, longitudinal oil-vessels (vitte ), 
most commonly opposite the furrows, (vallecule ) sometimes opposite the 
ribs, and sometimes wanting altogether. Albumen copious, horny, with 
a minute embryo in its base. ; 
A very large and most natural Order of herbaceous, or rarely shrubby plants, 
common throughout the temperate zones, rare within the tropics. Leaves alternate, 
very rarely opposite, usually with sheathing petioles, pinnately or ternately divided, 
often cut into capillary segments, rarely entire. Flowers in umbels or rarely capi- 
tate, with or without involucre. Many garden vegetables, as the carrot, ‘parsnip, 
parsly, celery, &c., and several poisonous plants, of which the Hemlock (coniwm ) 
is the most famous, belong to this Order. The drugs asafcetida, ammoniacum, 
galbanum, &c.; and the carminative seeds caraway, anise, dill, cummin, coriander, 
&e., are also products of umbelliferous plants. The generic characters of many can 
only be well examined when the fruit is ripe or nearly so ; this, together with the 
uniformity of floral structure throughout the order, and the minute differences that 
require to be noted, render the study of these plants very difficult to the student. 
The peculiar terms used in the following descriptions are given in italics in the 
above character, immediately after the explanation of each term. 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN TRIBES AND GENERA. 
Sub-Order I. Orrnospermex. Albumen (as seen in a cross section of the fruit) 
flat or nearly so on its inner face (next the commissure), 
Umbels simple or imperfect : 
1, HYDROCOTYLE: Fruit laterally compressed ... ... 1. Hydrocotyle. \~ |) 
2, SANICULEE : Fruit ovato-globose, cross section circular : 
Fruit covered with hooked bristles 2. Sanicula. 
Fruit tuberculated ... 2... 6... 8, Alepidea. 
Umbels compound or perfect : 
8, AMMINEE : Fruit laterally compressed or didymous : (IV.-XIII.) 
Mericarps 3; leaves much cut or divided : 
C distinct, entire (not bipartite): ae 
it roundish, didymous. Petals roundish 4, Apium. ae 
Fruit ovate or oblong. Petals ovate ... ... 6. Helosciadium, »~* 
Carpophore bipartite : 
Furrows of the fruit uni-vittate : 
Margin of the calyx obsolete : 
Petals roundish, apiculate, entire ... 5. Petroselinum. |~! 
Petals obcordate, apiculate ... ... 8, Carum. 
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