130 ON A NEW BEITISH UMBELLIFER. 



of two miicli dorsally-compressed carpels, with uon-coutiguous 

 lateral wings ; whereas in Peucedanem the tumid lateral wings are 

 so closely coherent, and parallel, as to appear one until they 

 dehisce. Our British Milk Parsley was, however, included by 

 Linneus in his genus Selinuni, so that a generic as well as a specific 

 description of the Lincolnshh-e plant is necessary. 



Selinum, Linn. (Hoffm.). — Floicers perfect, regular, calyx teeth 

 obsolete. Petals equal, inversely cordate-oblong, narrowed from 

 the base, involute, notched at the apex with the edges of the notch 

 iuflexed. Style filiform, capitellate, reflexed in fruit. Columella 

 bipartite. Cremocarp compressed from back to back, all the ridges 

 with membranous wings, the opposing marginal ones not parallel 

 but gaping from being set back at an angle from the points of their 

 attachment to the commissure. 2Ierica?-ps five-winged, the three 

 dorsal thin, parallel, approximate, the marginal twice as broad at 

 the centre, narrowing to each end, and then approaching its fellow 

 opposite. Vitt« solitary in the dorsal furrows, in pairs and super- 

 ficial on the arched commissural face. Umbel compound, many 

 rayed. General involucre none, partial bracts numerous, subulate, 

 sub-persistent. Leaves bipinnate, with pinnatifid segments. 



Selinum Carvifolia, Linn., Reich. Icones, vol. xxi., tab. 101, 

 1942. Syn. Angelica Carvifolia, Sprengel Umb. Prod., p. 16. Seseli 

 angulatum, Lam. Fl. Fr. iv., 410. Mylinum Carvifolia, Gaudin Fl. 

 Helv., ii., p. 344. Laserpitium selinoides, Scop. (?) Fl. Carn. vol. i., 

 p. 198. — Piootstock oblique, fi-om originating laterally out of that 

 of the previous year's plant, with stout fusiform cylindrical fibres, 

 Stem tough, sohd throughout, erect, two to four feet in height, 

 angular, furrowed, the many ribs so sharp and thin as to be almost 

 winged on the main stem, which is glabrous and simple or branched. 

 The ribs end just below the primary umbel (and the others in a lesser 

 degree) in a ragged fringe of whitish processes, giving an appear- 

 ance as of bracts having aborted or been pulled off. The occasional 

 presence of a real bract tends to further deceive a cursory observer, 

 and is in part, perhaps, an explanation why Selinum is liable to be 

 confused with the Peucedanum. Radical and lower stem leaves 

 with very long channelled petioles, upper ones with much shorter 

 stalks, all with an abrupt sheathing base, tripinnate or bipinnate 

 with pinnatifid segments, of a dull deep green, greyer beneath. 

 Pinnules simple, or cut, segments lanceolate, quarter to one-thii'd 

 inch, with finely serrulate callous border, and a horny diaphanous 

 mucro. Umbels terminal, large and compact, twenty to thirty 

 rayed, flat-topped in flower, the primary rays converging in fruit 

 and finely scabrid-pubescent. Pedicels of the umbellules one-third 

 to half an inch, spreading, rather unequal, not thickening in fruit, 

 and likewise pubescent. Petals milk-white. Common involucre 

 generally obsolete, but rarely there is a subulate bract in the normal 

 situation, or an aberrant one springing off a little way up one of 

 the primary rays. Partial bracts, several to each umbellule, linear, 

 sub -persistent. Stamens on curved filaments much longer than 

 the petals. Styles slender, four times as long as the stylopode, per- 

 sistent, curling down over the carpels. Fruit ovoid in outline, 



