176 PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. 



subcordate, 2, sometimes 3-seeded. Calisc in the 

 male flower entire. 



Herbaceous or arbor^^scent. Stem of the herbaceous 

 species simple, verticlUately terminating in 3 leaves, with 

 a solitary, central, pedunculate umbell; leaves digiiate; 

 umbell involucrate; flowers frequently producing 3 styles 

 and 3 seeds. 



Species. \. P. trifoUwn. Dioicous. Pink. Amalth. t. 

 435. f. 7. the male plant; referred through mistake to 

 Dentaria (Nasturtium.) 2. quinquefolium. Gin-seng. In- 

 digenous also to Tartary. 



Of this genus there are 5 other species; viz. 2 in the 

 West Indies, which become considerable trees, with co- 

 mose summits, an herbaceous species in New Holland, of 

 doubtful genus, 1 also which is arborescent in New Zea- 

 land, and a shrubby species in India, said to be diuretic 



9.55. HYDROCOTYLE. L, (Marsh Penny- 

 wort.) 



U?n&e// simple. — Cato none. Fetah entire, 

 spreading. <&'/i//es short; stigmas capitate. Fruit 

 suborbicular or reniform, laterally! compress- 

 ed. Seed tricostate, and flat, dorsal lib some- 

 times obsolete; commissure flat, linear, and im- 

 marginate. Involucnim various. 



Umbells axillary, sess'le or pedunculate, many or few 

 flowered, frequv-ntly proliferous; floweis bracteate, brac- 

 tes often resembling an involucrum. Plant herbaceous, 

 mostly creeping; leaves simple, peltate or reniform. 



Species. 1. H. americana. Fruit suborbicular. 2. 

 indgaris. o. itmbellata.. Fruit reniform. 



Of this genus there are 12 other t>pecies in South Ame- 

 rica, chiefly in Peru, besdes H. umbellata also indigenous 

 to Chili, 2 in Europe, 1 m India, 2 in the Isle of Fiance, 



f The direction in which the seeds of umbellifeious plants 

 are compressed, is doubth ss in most instances of more generic 

 importance than the simple existence of pressure. I have 

 therefore for the sake of distinction, divided the species of 

 compression into lateral and dorsal. By lateral compression is 

 meant, that the seed is elevated on the back and compressed on 

 the sides. By dorsal compression, is intended that form of ap- 

 pression familiar in the seeds of the Pa'snip (Pasiinaca sativa,) 

 the back of the seed being flat and the sides dilated, in fiict, a 

 fbrm almost precisely opposite to the preceding. 



