Prangos Hay Plafit. 5 



from their very base. In these leaves the whole crop may be said 

 to consist. 



From the centre of the leaves rises the jlofwer-stem, which I 

 have only seen in a young and mutilated state. Good specimens 

 of the inflorescence have not reached me ; but from some imperfect 

 umbels of flowers, I can state that the male and female flowers are 

 produced upon distinct umbels. Of the male flaivers the umbels 

 are compound, shorter than the bractese by which they are sub- 

 tended, and both axillary and terminal ; the hraclece are finely and 

 deeply pinnatifid with three-parted segments, of which the end- 

 lobe is broader than the rest, and often three-toothed. The m- 

 volucres are both general and partial, each consisting of five or 

 six membranous ovate-acuminate leaflets, which are shorter than 

 the stalks of the umbellules, or of the florets. At the base of 

 the umbel are clustered several scarious rudiments of florets. 

 The calyx consists of five distinct ovate minute sepals. The petals 

 are five, lanceolate, spreading, incurved, with a minute dorsal 

 nerve. The stamens are five, spreading, the same length as the 

 petals, and inserted opposite the sepals beneath a large, fleshy, 

 slightly wavy discus, which surrounds two little processes, the rudi- 

 ments of as many styles. The filaments are incurved, and quite 

 smooth. The anthers large, square, innate, bilocular ; each cell 

 opening longitudinally with two valves. The female flowers have 

 not yet been observed. The fruit is inferior, and consists of two 

 united achenia, at maturity separating from base to summit from 

 their common axis ; it is oval-lanceolate, compressed, eight or 

 nine lines long, and is crowned with two recurved styles, arising 

 from the centre of a large, fleshy, wavy discus, and with the 

 corky sepals of the persistent calyx. Of these achenia, the com- 

 missure or point of union is nearly flat, and narrower than their 

 transverse diameter. Of each the pericarpium is corky, with five 

 primary juga or elevations, which are in the centre produced into 

 a corky wavy wing, and on each side covered densely with coarse 

 tubercles ; there are no secondary juga, and the valleculas, or in- 

 tervals, are concave and smooth. The seed is of the same form 

 as the pericarpium, from which it is easily separable ; it is covered 



