236 OF THE INFLORESCENCE. 



Umbella, an Umbel, for which some au- 

 thors retain the obsolete old English name 

 of Rundle. In this several flower-stalks, or 

 rays, nearly equal in length, spread from 

 one common centre, their summits forming 

 a level, convex,, or even globose surface, 

 more rarely a concave one. When each 

 ray is simple and single-flowered, it is called 

 a simple umbel, as those of Allium ursi- 

 num, Engl Bot. t. 122, Ivy, t. 1267, 

 Primula veris, t. 5, farinosa, t. 6, ela- 

 tior 9 t. 513, and Eucalyptus resinifer, 

 Exot. Bot. t. 84. In a compound umbel 

 each ray or stalk mostly bears an umbel- 

 lula, or partial umbel, as Athamanta 

 Libanotis, Engl. Bot. t. 138. This is 

 usually the case in the very natural order 

 of plants called umbelliferous, to which 

 the last-mentioned, as well as the common 

 Carrot, Parsnep, Parsley, Hemlock, &c. 

 belongs. 



A few only of this order have simple urn* 

 bels, as Hydrocotyle vulgaris, t. 751, and 

 the curious Astrantia and Eriocalue, Exot. 

 Bot. t. 76 — 79. In Euphorbia the umbel 

 is differently compounded, consisting of 



