18 GoRHAM^ on the UmbeUifera. 



which anastomose in the area between them. Tliese veins, 

 when they immediately leave the primary veins, may be called 

 proper veinlets (T, T, 7 j ; and when they anastomose, common 

 veinlets (8, 8, 8). 



In the feather-veined leaf (see PI. Ill, fig. 6), the primary 

 veins diverge from the midrib in right lines, and lose them- 

 selves in the margin ; while, if the same veins are curved 

 instead of straight, the leaf is called curve-veined (Fig. 5). 



But the different modes of venation are clearly shown in 

 the analysis at the commencement of this paper, and which I 

 have tabulated for the purpose, so that they will not require 

 to be repeated in this place. 



In the foregoing remarks, and in the table of venation, I 

 have adhered rigidly to the distinctions given by Lindley, 

 distinctions which, as the doctor observes, may to some appear 

 over-refined; while at the same time he states his convictions 

 that no one can accurately describe a leaf without the use of 

 them, or of equivalent terms yet to be invented. 



A cursory examination will suffice to show that many kmds 

 of venation, defined in the foregoing table, are to be found 

 amongst the leaves of the Umbelliferse. The netted leaf is 

 seen in Sium latifolium ;* the feather veined in Heracleum 

 Sphondylium, and Angelica sylvesti'is ; the falsely-ribbed 

 in Pimjnnella Saxifraya, Sanicula Europcea, and Bupleurum 

 fruticosuni* This last is an exotic ; and when examined by 

 the naked eye only, is sufficiently peculiar to excite admira- 

 tion ; but under the lens, and by transmitted light, its reti- 

 culations are surpassuigly beautiful. A ribbed leaflet is seen 

 in Peucedanum officinale. Examples of the radiating leaf are 

 found in the Eryngium maritimum,* and in Sanicula Europcea. 



It is not my intention, however, to notice the venation in 

 every individual species of this interesting group of plants, 

 but rather to point out a peculiar distribution of vein wliich 

 I have found to occur in several of them, and of which, so far 

 as I can ascertain, no mention has been made either in our 

 systematic works, when treating of the organography of 

 flowering plants, or in our manuals of descri^otive botany. 



As this deviation from the ordinary course of a vein is, so 

 far as I have noticed, constant for the same species, and as 

 invariable in its direction as that of other veins in other 

 classes, it would seem to merit a particular description. 



It was while examining a fresh specimen oi jEthusa Cyna- 

 pium (fools' parsley)* that my attention was aroused by the 



* See mounted specimens. 



