PENTANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Cnidium. 91 



Root tapering, fleshy. Whole herb smooth and glaucous. Barren 

 plants most humble in size, and less spreading ; fertile ones 

 about a foot high. Stem erect, branched from the veiy bottom, 

 leafy, angular, furrowed, purplish. Leaves oblong, doubly pin- 

 nate J radical ones on long footstalks, the rest with only short, 

 dilated, membranous ones ; lea/lets uniform, linear-lanceolate, 

 or quite linear, entire j three occasionally combined at the end 

 of the leaf. Umbels numerous, simple or compound, panicled, 

 erect without any bracteas ; their rays angular, smooth. Fl. 

 cream-coloured, numerous, small ; the barren ones mostly with- 

 out even the rudiments of a germen ; fertile furnished with im- 

 perfect anthers. Stigmas capitate, almost globular. Fruit ellip- 

 tic-ovate, often deprived of the styles, which, when permanent, 

 are small and inconspicuous. 



165. CNIDIUM. Pepper-saxifrage. 



Cusson Mss. Spreng. Prodr. 39. f 3. 



Fl. nearly regular, imperfectly separated, the innermost 

 more or less abortive. Cal. none. Pet. 5, equal, obovate, 

 or inversely heart-shaped, with an inflexed point. Filam. 

 thread-shaped, rather spreading, as long as the petals. 

 Anth. roundish. Germ, inferior, ovate, obtuse, slightly 

 compressed, ribbed. Styles in the flower very short, af- 

 terwards elongated, spreading, cylindrical, half the length 

 of the fruit, tumid and nearly hemispherical at the base. 

 Stigmas blunt. Fl. Recept. annular, thin, undulated ; at 

 first erect : subsequently depressed by the swelling bases 

 of the styles. Fruit ovate, a little compressed, somewhat 

 contracted at the upper part, crowned with the floral re- 

 ceptacle, and permanent, spreading or recurved, styles. 

 Seeds ovate, solid, with 5 equidistant, acute, slightly 

 winged, ribs; the interstices deep, concave, or obtusan- 

 gular. Juncture channelled, contracted. 



Branching, acrid or fetid, herbs, with repeatedly compound, 

 cut, narrow leaves. Umbels terminal, of several general 

 and partial rays. Getieral bracteas few, or none ; par- 

 tial several, linear-lanceolate. Fl. white or yellowish. 

 Seeds acrid, nauseous. The name is an antient appella- 

 tion of some hot kind of grain. 



1. C. Silaus. Meadow Pepper-saxifrage. 



Leaflets deeply pinnatifid ; their segments opposite, decur- 



rent. General bracteas one or two. 

 C. Silaus. Spreng. Prodr. 40. 



