598 UMBELLIFER.E. Hydrocottle. 



Order LXVIII. UMBELLIFER^. Juss. 



Calyx adherent to the ovary ; the limb very small, 5-toothed or 

 entire. Petals 5, inserted on the outside of the epigynous disk, 

 usually inflexed at the point, the inflexed portion cohering with the 

 lamina : aestivation somewhat imbricate or rarely valvate. Stamens 

 5, alternate with the petals, inflexed in aestivation : anthers ovate, 

 introrse. Ovary composed of two (very rarely more) united carpels, 

 invested with the coherent calyx, 2-celled, with a solitary suspended 

 ovule in each cell : styles 2 ; their bases dilated and thickened into 

 a fleshy body (^stylopodium) which covers the top of the ovary : stig- 

 mas simple. Fruit consisting of 2 dry carpels (often termed tnericarps), 

 which adhere by their faces [commissure) to a common axis {carpo- 

 phore), at length separating from each other, and suspended from the 

 summit of the carpophore ; each carpel indehiscent, marked with 5 

 longitudinal primary ribs, one opposite each petal and each stamen, 

 and often with 5 alternating secondary ones : in the substance of the 

 pericarp are usually several longitudinal canals or receptacles 

 (vittcs), filled with a colored aromatic oil or turpentine, which are 

 commonly lodged in the spaces (intervals) between the ribs, but some- 

 times opposite them. Seed anatropous, usually coherent with the 

 carpel, rarely loose. Embryo minute at the base of the copious 

 horny albumen. — -Herbs, or rarely suflrutescent plants ; the stems 

 usually fistular and furrowed. Leaves alternate (or very rarely 

 opposite), usually pinnately or ternately divided ; the petioles most- 

 ly dilated and sheathing at the base. Flowers in umbels, usually 

 with an involucre. 



Series I. The inner face of the seed and albumen plane, neither 

 convolute nor involute. (Subord. Orthospermje, DC.) 



Tribe I. HYDROCOTYLE^. Spreng. ; DC. 



Fruit laterally compressed. Carpels convex or (rarely) acute on 

 the back : primary ribs 5, sometimes obsolete ; the lateral ones 

 either marginal or on the face of the commissure ; the intermediate 

 ones most prominent : secondary ribs sometimes persistent and 

 filiform, sometimes almost or entirely wanting. Vittae very seldom 

 present. Seed flattish on the face. — Umbels simple or imperfectly 

 compound. 



