APIACEiE OR UMBELLIFERiE. 



mistaking it for parsnips, ground nuts, or similar roots. It has been 

 used in lepra and ichthyosis ; and Dr. Hope found an infusion of the 

 leaves useful in promoting the menstrual discharge. 



86. CE. Phellandrium Spreng. prodr. 37. DC. prodr. iv. 138. 

 Eng. Bot. t. 684. Nees andEberm.pl. med. t. 287. handb. iii. 22. 

 SandC.i.t. 40. SmithEng.ji. ii.72. — Phellandrium aquaticum 

 Linn. sp. 366. — Ditches and wet places all over Europe, the 

 Crimea, and Siberia. (Water Dropwort.) 



Root spindle-shaped, thick, with many whorled fibres. Stem 2 or 

 3 feet high, hollow, strict, furrowed, half immersed in the water, 

 very bushy, with numerous spreading, leafy branches. Leaves stalked, 

 spreading, repeatedly pinnate, cut, with innumerable fine, expanded, 

 dark-green, shining, acute segments. Umbels opposite to the leaves, 

 on shortish stalks, about 5-rayed, without any general bracts. Partial 

 umbels very dense, of numerous short rays, accompanied by many nar- 

 row, taper-pointed bracts. Flowers white, numerous, all fertile, the 

 outer ones largest and most irregular ; the innermost more certaiidy 

 prolific. Styles long, filiform, spreading, capitate. Fruit ovate, rather 

 compressed, purplish, smooth, oblong, crowned with the minute spread- 

 ing calyx, and rather short, permanent, slightly spreading styles; the 

 dorsal ridges distinct, but little elevated, the lateral ones much broader 

 and thicker ; all confluent below the calyx. Pedicels shorter than the 

 fruit. — Poisonous like the last, but in a less degree. 



N. B. This genus contains 20 species according to De Candolle ; 

 and Fee reckons them all dangerous poisons, nothwithstanding that the 

 fleshy tubercles of CE.pimpinelloides, and peucedanifolia have occasion- 

 ally been eaten. 



.ETHUSA. 



Calyx obsolete. Petals obovate, emarginate, with an inflexed 

 lobe, the outer somewhat radiating. Fruit ovate globose. 

 Half-fruits with 5 elevated thick acutely keeled ridges, the la- 

 terals forming an edge, and rather broader than the others, sur- 

 rounded by a somewhat winged keel. Channels with single 

 vittae ; commissure with two curved ones. — Annuals. Leaves 

 multifid. Involucre none, or 1-leaved; involucels with 1 to 3 

 leaflets, all on one side, and pendulous. Flowers white. 



87. M. Cynapium Linn. sp. 367. DC. prodr. iv. 141. Eng. 

 Bot. t. 1192. S. and C. i. t. 8. Smith Eng. fl. ii. 64. — Culti- 

 vated ground, common throughout Europe. (Fools' Parsley.^ 



Root tapering, whitish. Herb erect, of a dark lurid green, fetid. 

 Stem round, striated, leafy, often purplish, a foot high. Leaves with 

 short sheathing footstalks, all ternate, with slender-stalked, tripartite, 

 cut, somewhat cuneate leaflets. Umbels stalked, terminal, spreading 

 and flattish, distinguishable at first sight by their 3, long, narrrow, pen- 

 dulous, 1-sided partial bracts, and the want of general ones. Flowers 

 pure white, rarely partially abortive. Fruit pale brown, ovate, 2 lines 

 long, without any remains of a calyx ; ridges thick, corky, sharp, with 



40 



