PEUCEDANUM. 



not half the length of the rays, their margins membranous and partly 

 coloured ; partial ones similar, rather longer in proportion and often 

 confluent. Flowers white, numerous, uniform, with involute petals. 

 Fruit very light straw colour, 4 lines long, shining, obovate ; the dorsal 

 ridges very near each other, distinctly elevated, sharp, the lateral de- 

 pressed and far within the broad thin margin ; vittee of the commissure 

 subulate, straight, about half the length of the fruit. — The root 

 abounds in a white bitter fetid juice, which hardens into a brown acrid 

 resin. The Russians employ it as ginger. A famous remedy in Cour- 

 land in epilepsy. (Rusts krit. repert. xii. 2. p. 281.) 



IMPERATORIA. 



This genus differs in nothing from Peucedanum, except in the 

 rim of the calyx being obsolete. 



107. I. Ostruthium Linn. sp. 371. DC.prodr. iv. 183. Eng. 

 Bot. t. 1 380. Nees and Eberm. pi. med. t. 290. handb. iii. 45. 

 Smith Eng. Fl. ii. 79. — Peucedanum Ostruthium Koch. umb. 

 95. — Moist meadows and woods throughout Europe ; also in 

 Newfoundland. (Masterwort.) 



Root fleshy, tuberous, somewhat creeping, of an aromatic and acrid 

 quality. Stem 1 to 2 feet high, erect, hollow, round, striated, smooth, 

 leafy, slightly branched. Lower leaves on long stalks, twice ternate ; 

 upper less compound, on shorter stalks, with a sheathing, membranous, 

 sometimes jagged dilatation at the base. Leaflets 2 or 3 inches Ion", 

 and broad in proportion, veiny, smooth on both sides, rough-edged, 

 finely and sharply serrated, partly cut or lobed, the middle one, some- 

 times all three, deeply 3-cleft, the lateral ones oblique at the base; the 

 uppermost leaves sometimes very narrow. Umbels broad, flattish, of 

 about 40 smooth general rays, 8 or 10 inches wide when in fruit; the 

 partial rays still more numerous and very slender. Flowers small, 

 white, or pale flesh coloured, almost perfectly uniform and regular. 

 Calyx obsolete. Styles short, reflexed, capitate. Fruit nearly orbicu- 

 lar, about 2 lines broad or something less, straw colour, smooth, thin, 

 shining; the dorsal ridges elevated, stout, rather soft and undulated, 

 the lateral ones indistinct, far within the thin pallid margin. Vittas of the 

 commissure deep brown, distinct. — Root acrid and bitter ; it is used as 

 a masticatory in toothach, and many writers speak well of it as a febri- 

 fuge. Lango even affirms that it has cured agues which had resisted 

 the influence of Peruvian bark. Burnett. 



ANETHUM, 



Calyx obsolete. Petals roundish entire involute, with a 

 squarish retuse lobe. Fruit lenticular flattened from the back, 

 surrounded by a flattened border. Half fruits with equidistant 

 filiform ridges : the 3 dorsal acutely keeled, the 2 lateral more 

 obsolete, losing themselves in the border. Vittae broad, solitary, 



filling the whole channels, 2 on the commissure Upright 



smooth annuals. Leaves decompound, with setaceous linear 

 segments. Involucre none. Flowers yellow 

 49 e 



