34 PENTANDRIA—DIGYNIA. Kryiigium. 



less convex, either naked, downy, prickly, or scaly, va- 

 riously ribbed, with flat, or concave, rarely convex, in- 

 terstices, the ribs sometimes compressed, acute, or winged, 

 sometimes prickly, or scaly. Albumen large, fleshy, com- 

 posing the bulk of the seed. Embryo dicotyledonous, in- 

 verted, from near the upper end of the albumen. 



Inflorescence (except in Eryngium) a simple, or more usually 

 compound, umbel, of many rays, with or without several 

 bracteas at the origin of the several rays. The absence 

 or presence of these bracteas, and in some cases their 

 shape, is resorted to by Linnaeus for generic characters ; 

 to excuse which he denominates them involucra and in- 

 volucella, as being supposed a kind oi calyx, remote from 

 Xhejloisoer. But they are found in practice to lead to the 

 formation of unnatural genera, and to be variable in the 

 same species ; affording an example of the treacherous 

 nature of every thing belonging to the hiflorescence, and 

 not to \}iXQ fructification, for generic discrimination. 



Umbelliferous Plants are generally herbaceous, with leaves 

 for the most part repeated 1}^ compound. Floisjcrs white, 

 reddish, or j^ellow. Such as grow in dry or mountainous 

 places are aromatic and wholesome; the marsh or aquatic 

 kmds are virulent and dangerous.] 



136. ERYNGIUM. Eryngo. 



Linn. Gen. 127. Juss.226. FLBr.288. Tourrut. ]73. Lam.(.\87. 

 Gcurtn. t. 20. 



Flowers aggregate. Common Receptacle conical, scaly, many- 

 flowered, having a rigid, simple or three- cleft, acute scale, 

 to each sessile perfect j^oid^\ Cal. of each flower superior, 

 of .5 erect, pointed, equal leaves. Pet. 5, equal, oblong, 

 channelled, taper-pointed, infiexed about the middle. 

 Filam. capillary, straight, prominent. Anth. roundish- 

 oblong, incumbent. Germen simple, inferior, oblong- 

 ovate, clothed with erect bristles. Styles thread-shaped, 

 straight, nearly erect and parallel, shorter than the sta- 

 mens, permanent. Stigmas simple. Fruit ovate, slightly 

 compressed transversely, bristly, separable lengthwise into 

 2 parts. Seeds oblong, nearly cylindrical, coated; the 

 coat either permanent or deciduous. 



Herbaceous, mostly perennial, glaucous or blueish, prickly, 

 very rigid, scarcely at all hairy or downy. Leaves alter- 

 nate, often pinnatifid, with spinous lobes or teeth; radical 



