20 UMBELLATE PLANTS. 



the seed, when mature, a marked distinction is ob- 

 servable in each genus. In some, as the Parsnip, the 

 seeds are perfectly flat; in Coriander quite spherical; 

 in the Caraway almost cylindric ; in the Carrot arm- 

 ed with hooked bristles; in the Hemlock marked with 

 undulating ridges ; in Thapsia furnished with little 

 margins like wings ; in Cachrys coated with a large 

 spongy shell, like cork, &tc. So that an attention to 

 this particular alone will be sufficient, very generally, 

 to point out the genus. 



As specimens of this family, which I may recom- 

 mend to your examination, may be mentioned the 

 Carrot, Parsley, Hemlock, Lovage, Angelica, Fool's- 

 parsley, Cow-parsnip, Water-parsnip, &ic. which 

 have white flowers, and Fennel, Dill, and Parsnip, 

 which have them yellow. 



Among this tribe, the Carrot, Parsnip, Parsley, 

 Cellery, Chervil, Skerret, and Arrekacha are em- 

 ployed as articles of diet, but most of them, in their 

 natural state, are either poisonous or unwholesome ; 

 indeed, most of the tribe are considered dangerous 

 when grown in a wet soil, and several, as the Hem- 

 loci , Dropwort, Fool's-parsley , and Cicuta or Cowbane, 

 rank amongst the most certain poisons indigenous to 

 E'irope and North America. The Fool's-parsley 

 {JEthasa Cynapivm), as its name implies, has not 

 unfrequently been gathered and eaten with Parsley, 

 which it much resembles in its finely compounded 

 and dissected leaves ; its taste, however, is nauseous, 

 and its smell heavy and disagreeable, but the botanist 

 has long pointed out its physical trait of distinction, 

 in the peculiar character of its involucelluin, of three 

 long, narrow leaflets depending from the outer base 

 of the partial umbel. The form of its seed is also 

 entirely different from Parsley, being convex, and 

 broader, marked on the back with three prominent 



