258 SILER TRILOBUM AS A BUITISH PLANT. 



witli one or more species of Lrtserpitlnrn, iiiidcr tlio name of L. Irilohnm, 

 frum which "enus, as defined by Linnaeus, its fruit-cliaracters entirely 

 exclude it. This is well pointed out by Crantz (Stirp. Austriac. f. 3. p. 

 186), who places our plant iu his genus Siler, in which, nevertheless, he 

 unaccountably also includes Linnseus's Laserpitium Siler and L. gcilUcum. 

 Though Crantz then is the founder of Siler as a genus in the post-Linnfean 

 sense, the definition of Scopoli in the second edition of his ' Flora 

 Carniolica' (vol. i. p. 217), who restricted it to the present species, is 

 that generally quoted. Bentham and Hooker give (Gen. Plant. 908) 

 Scopoli as the authority for the genus, with which they incorporate 

 HoiTraann's JyaaylUs. The technical characters of the fruit readily dis- 

 tinguish it. 



Siler, Scop. — *Fruit glabrous, oval-oblong, slightly dorsally com- 

 pressed ; commissure wide, flat cr sliglitly concave; carpels nearly semi- 

 circular on transverse section, each with 9 blunt prominent ribs, none of 

 them winged, the 5 primary ribs rather thicker and more prominent than 

 the 4 secondary ones, the 2 marginal ones especially prominent, forming 

 with the adjacent ones of the other carpel a blunt double rim to the fruit ; 

 vittee solitary, buried one in each secondary rib, and not visible on the 

 surface of the fruit, two other vittee in the face of the commissure; seed 

 lenticular-coni|)ressed, fiat or nearly so on the face ; stylopod small, rather 

 flat; styles persistent, closely reflexed over the stylopod. (When dry the 

 dorsal compression of the carpels becomes much greater, and the ribs so 

 much narrower and more prominent, as to have led to their being described 

 as winged.) 



S. TRILOBUM [Crantz, Austr f. 3. p. 186 (1769)1, Scopoli Fl. Carn. ed. 

 2. vol. i. p. 217 (1772) ; De Cand. Prod. iv. 200. LnserpUlnm. trilobitm, L. 

 Sp. 3.57 (ex parte) et plurim. aiict. Europ. (non Crantz, nee Lapeyr. nee 

 Rochel). Siler aqiiileffifoUum, Spreng. Urab. 41; Gpeitn. Fruct. p. 92; 

 Mertens and Koch, Dentsch. Fl. ii. 368. Laserpilinm. aqnileyifolium, Jacq. 

 Austr. p. 29 (non Brotero, nee De Cand.). L. audriacnm, Pallas in 

 sehed. 



Rootstock vertical, thick, the ujiper portion clothed with the fibrous re- 

 mains of the petioles of leaves of past years ; slem erect, 4 to 6 ft. high, 

 moderately branched, terete, striate, glabrous, glaucous, solid, branches 

 stifl', rigid ; rool-leaves triternate on long petioles, the leaflets more or less 

 deeply trifid, roundish, irregularly and very coarsely crenate, stem-leaves 

 ternate, the leaflets less rounded, trifid, with more elongated segments, 

 petiole dilated into a rigid sheathing base, all the leaflets thick, almost 

 coriaceous, glabrous, shining dark clear green above, glaucous and ele- 

 gantly veined beneath; umbels icxmw^X, vf\\}\ 1.5 to 22 widely spreading 

 i)ranclies, general involucre of 1 to 3 ovate-lanceolate deciduous bracts or 

 0, partial of 5 to 8 small lanceolate bracts, secondary umbels distant with 

 20-30 flowers, rather lax ; flowers all regular, on long pedicels, petals dis- 

 tant, obovate-spathnlatft, with a narrow base, bifid, with a long inflexed 

 point, white, when in bud pinkish, calyx with 5 minute teeth, stamens 

 twice as long as the petals ; fruit y\ iu. long, y\ in. wide, slightly con- 



* When I collected the specimens from which the description is drawn, the 

 flowering_ season had passed, and the fruit, though it had attained its full size, 

 was not ripe, also I dug- up no roots. In the description, therefore, the characters 

 of the rootstock, the flowers, and the fully ripe fruit are taken from Continental 

 specimens. 



