380 iXKNICULUM. [class v. order ii. 



culty in swallowing, and numbness in the limbs. Sometimes tlicie are 

 spasmodic pains and swelling in the stomach, lividity of the skin, and 

 difticully in breathing. 



GENUS LXIV. FCENI'CULUM.— HoFFM. Fennel. 



Gen. Char. Cahjx margin obtuse, obsolete. Petals roundish, entire, 

 rolled inwards with a squarish incurved point. Fruit nearly 

 round, on a transverse section. Carpels with five obtuse promi- 

 nent carinated ridges. Channels with single vittcB. Albumen 

 half round. General and partial involucre wanting. — Name 

 from/«?/ii«m, harj ; its smell being something like that of hay. 

 1. F. vul'gare, Gcertn. {V\g. AA2.) common Fennel. Stem round; 

 leaves bi-tevnate ; leaflets cut into long, linear, filiform segments. 



Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 132. — Ljndley, Synopsis, p. 119. — 

 Anethum Fccniculum, Linn. — English Botany, t. 1208. — Meum 

 Fceniculum, Sprencj. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 85. 



Root tapering. The whole plant of a deep glaucous green, smooth. 

 Stem erect, from three to four feet high, round, solid, striated, much 

 branched and leafy. Leaves alternate, very much divided, with long 

 narrow linear awl-shaped segments, more or less drooping, the foot- 

 stalk much dilated and sheathing at the base. Umbels lateral and 

 terminal, the general of numerous unequal striated spreading rai/s, the 

 partial of numerous short unequal ones, bearing crowded yellow 

 fioivers. Involucre both general and partial wanting. Calyx an ob- 

 tuse obsolete margin. Petals roundish, rolled inwards, somesvhat 

 notched at the top from the small squareish inflexed point. Stamens 

 on awl-shaped ^/a>«c«<s, with ovate yellow anthers. Styles short, with 

 a flattish fleshy glutinous dish. Stigmas small, obtuse. Fruit oblong, 

 nearly round, on a transverse section. Carpels with five prominent 

 obtusely keeled ridges. Channels with slender single vitta. Albumen 

 half round. 



Habitat. — Plentiful on the chalky cliffs of England, and the banks 

 of rivers near the sea in Norfolk and Suffolk ; in the crevices of the 

 rock of Nottingham Castle; and not unfre([uent in the neighbourhood 

 of towns and villages, where it has probably escaped from gardens. 

 Perennial; flowering in July and August. 



The boiled leaves of the Fennel is in many parts of the country used, 

 when finely minced and mixed with melted butter, as a sauce to 

 salmon and mackarcl ; and the warm aromatic seeds arc made into 

 tea, and used as a carminative for children, and sometimes as a 

 substitute for caraway seeds. 



