PENTANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Apium. 75 



Biennial. May. 



Root large, fleshy, branching downwards. Stem stoutj leafy, 

 branched, solid, deeply furrowed, 2 or 3 feet high. Lower leaves 

 very large, twice ternate, stall<ed ; upper ternate, with a short, 

 broad, concave, membranous, fringed, ribbed stalk, clasping the 

 stem 5 all with very large, shining, ovate, cut and serrated 

 leaflets. Umbels terminal, globular, of a pale greenish white, 

 with very numerous general and partial rays, but no bracteas. 

 Fl. small, extremely abundant and crowded, nearly uniform, 

 slightly irregular. Fruit from those of the circumference, black, 

 the size of a pea, much hollowed out at each side, when ripe 

 almost a double globe, highly aromatic, but too strong and bit- 

 ter to be pleasant, as is likewise the whole plant in a less de- 

 gree ; resembling Celery, which seems to have taken its place 

 at modern tables. 



156. APIUM. Parsley. 



Linn. Gen. 146. Juss.2\9. Fl. Br. 333. Tourn. t. \60. Lam. 

 t. 196. Gcertn. t.22. 



Fl. uniform, and nearly regular, almost all perfect and pro- 

 lific. Cal. obsolete. Pei. 5, roundish, or obovate, with 

 an inflexed point, all very nearly equal. Filam. thread- 

 shaped, about as long as the corolla. Anth. roundish. 

 Germ, inferior, almost orbicular, somewhat compressed. 

 Styles at first shorter than the stamens, nearly erect ; sub- 

 sequently elongated, thread-shaped, reflexed; greatly 

 swelled at the base, and subtended by a thin, orbicular, 

 wavy Jloral receptacle. Stigmas obtuse. Fruit ovate or 

 nearly orbicular, solid, slightly compressed, flattened at 

 the sides, crowned with the withered fl. receptacle, and 

 spreading styles. Seeds ovate, with 3 acute dorsal ribs, 

 and 2 marginal ones, meeting at the juncture^ which is 

 flat and the breadth of the seeds ; interstices flat and 

 even. 



Biennial aromatic herbs, with broadish, cut leaves, and com- 

 pound umbels of small greenish-white^otu^s, with or with- 

 out bracteas. Of the only two known species, which are 

 A. Petroselijium, Garden Parsley, and A. graveole?is, 

 Celery, the former has numerous narrow partial bracteas, 

 with 1 or 1 general ones; the latter occasionally a gene- 

 ral bractea, never any partial ones. This is a great ob- 

 jection, in so natural a genus, to taking those appendages 

 into the generic character; but it would be more ill-judged 

 to divide the genus on account of them. 



