276 



AMMIACEAE. 



5. FOENICULUM Mill. 



Erect glabrous herbs, with pinnately decompound leaves, the segments 

 linear or capillary, and compound umbels of yellow flowers. Involucre and 

 involucels none. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Stylopodium large, conic. Fruit 

 linear-oblong, glabrous, terete, or nearly so. -Carpels little angled, dorsally flat- 

 tened, prominently ribbed; oil-tubes solitary in the intervals. Seed-face flat, 

 or slightly concave. [Latin, diminutive of foenum, hay, from its odor.] 

 About 4 species, of the Old World, the following typical. 



1. Foeniculum 

 Foeniculum (L.) 

 Karst. FENNEL. 

 (Fig. 299.) Per- 

 ennial, 2-4 high. 

 Leaves dissected 

 into capillary seg- 

 ments; petioles 

 broad, clasping; 

 umbels large, 9- 

 25-rayed, the rays 

 rather stout, some- 

 what glaucous, 1'- 

 3i' long in fruit; 

 pedicels l"-4" 

 long; fruit about 

 3" long. [Anethum 

 Foeniculum L. ; 

 Foeniculum vul- 

 gare Gaertn. ; F. 

 dulce Mill.] 



Fields, marshes and waste grounds. Naturalized. Native of Europe. First 

 grown in Bermuda as :\ garden herb, now widely distributed as a weed. Escaped 

 from gardens in the United States. Flowers in summer and autumn. This is, ap- 

 parently, the plant recorded by Lefroy as Ferula, communis L. 



Anethum graveolens L., DILLWEED, MAY-WEED, also European, similar 

 to Fennel, but annual or biennial with somewhat flattened fruit, is recorded 

 by Lefroy as naturalized and common in his time, and is said by H. B. Small 

 to have been a common and troublesome weed. 



6. SMYRNIUM [Tourn.] L. 



Erect glabrous biennial herbs with ternately or biternately compound 

 leaves, their segments broad, and compound umbels of greenish-yellow flowers, 

 mostly without involucres or involucels. Calyx-teeth minute. Petals with 

 inflexed tips. Stylopodium conic. Fruit ovate, often as broad as long, 

 laterally flattened. Carpels ovoid, rather prominently 3-ribbed, the oil-tubes 

 numerous. Seed furrowed on the inner side. [Greek, referring to the myrrh- 

 like odor of the seeds.] About 7 species, natives of the Old World, the fol- 

 lowing typical. 



