Umbellales.] 



APIACEi^E. 



73 



J>C. I'lodr. 



i3y. 



Order CCXCVI. APIACEiE.— Umbellifers, 



Umbelliferae, Juss. Gen. 218. (1789; ; Koch in N. Ad. Bonn 12. 7.3.; DC. .»/<•/« oj>y (18201 • nc i 

 4.56.; Tausch. in Bot.Zeit. {1834} ■ Ann. Sc. n. s. 4. 41. ; Endl. Gen. ckii. ; Mei'sn'a; t/en 

 — Umbellacese, Lindl. Key, No. 11, (1835). ' 



BwG^o&i&.— Vmhdlal Exofjens, with didymoxis fmlt, and a double epigynous disk. 



Herbaceous plants, often milky, with soUd or fistular furrowed stems. Leaves usually 

 divided, sometimes simple, sheathing at the base, occasionally with close sunple pai-allel 



4 12 3 



Fig. DX. 



veins. Flowers in umbels, white, pink, yellow, or blue, generally suiTounded by an 



mvolucre. Calyx superior, either entire or 5-toothed. Petals 5, inserted on the outside 



of a fleshy epigynous disk ; usually inflexed at the point ; aestivation imbricate, rarely 



valvate. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals, incurved in aestivation. Ovary inferior, 



2-celled, with solitai'y pendulous ovules crowned by a 



double fleshy disk ; styles 2, distinct ; stigmas simple. 



Fruit con.sisting of 2 carpels, separable fx'om a common 



axis, to which they adhere by their face (the commissm'c) ; 



each carpel traversed by elevated ridges, of which 5 are 



primary, and 4, alternating with them, secondary ; the 



ridges are sejiarated by channels, below which are often 



placed, in the substance of the pericarp, certain hnear 



receptacles of coloured oily matter called vittse. Seed ' '*'■ * 



pendulou.s, usually adhering inseparably to the pericarp, rarely loose ; embryo minute, 



at the base of abundant horny albumen ; radicle pointing to the hilum. 



If Botanists form their ideas of an Umbellifer from the ordinary appearance of such 

 plants m Europe, they will have a very imperfect idea of the singular fonns which the 

 genera sometimes assume, unless they take Ilydrocotyle, Astrantia, and Eryngumi as the 

 chief objects of consideration. Instead of the herbaceous and often fistular stem, they be- 

 come soUd branched bushes ; for compound umbels, panicles and racemes are substitutcil 

 (as in Horsfieldia), and the httle involucres, which we almost overlot)k, become the 

 most conspicuous part of the wh(de structure. Take, for example, on the one haiul, the 

 singular Leucoleena rotundifolia,with its gi-eat white 3-lobed plates surrounduig the flowei-s, 

 and on the other the not less singular Bolax glebaria, whose tufts of clo.se entangled .shoots 

 are described as resembling haystacks, and which D'UrviUe tells us^iiglUdeceive themost 



Fig. DX.— Athamanta cen'ariaefolia. 1. a separate flower, with hairy petals : 2. a petal by itself • 3. n 

 ripe fruit with the two carpels or mericarps separating from the double can>opod or axis ; 4. a seea ae- 

 prived of its integiiments, and divided vertically, so as to show the position of the embrjo. 



Fig. DXI.— Flower of Angelica. 



