CLASS V. ORDER 11.] ARCHANG ELICA. 387 



Lindley, Synopsis, p. 117. — Angelica Archancjelica, Linn. — English 

 Botany, t. 2561. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 80. — Hooker, British Flora, 

 vol. i. p. 134, 



Root large, fleshy, branched. Stem erect, very stout, four or five 

 feet high, round, striated, smooth, except near the umbels it is thickly 

 clothed with short soft down, branched and leafy. Leaves alternate, 

 bi-pinnate or tri-pinnate, large, spreading, quite smooth, leaflets ovate 

 lanceolate, sometimes heart-shaped at the ba^e, the apex acute, unequally 

 serrated, occasionally cut and lobed, the terminal one always deeply 

 lobed, footstalks much dilated at the base in a saccate manner with 

 thin membranous sides, smooth, striated, embracing the stem. Umbels 

 lateral and terminal, ihe general of large spreading numerous striated 

 downy rays, {he partial globose, of numerous slender unequal downy 

 rays. General involucre mostly wanting, sometimes there are a few 

 linear segments, partial of numerous unequal linear smooth or some- 

 what downy spreading segraenls, as long and frequently longer than 

 the rays, i^/owej-s numerous, crowded, greenish white. C'a/y.r margin 

 of five teeth. Petals nearly equal. Stamens on slender filaments, 

 ■with ovate anthers. Styles short, spreading. Stigmas obtuse. Disk 

 convex, fleshy. Fruit oblong, ovate, compressed at the back, and the 

 sides with two wings. Carpels with thick elevated keeled ridges, the 

 two lateral ones about twice as broad as the others, dilated into thin 

 membranous wings. Albumen free in the pericarp, covered over with 

 numerous vittce. 



Habitat. — Watery places ; rare. Near Birmingham, Durham, and 

 on the banks of the Thames, near Dorking. 



Bieuuial; flowering from June to September. 



It is probable this is not a native plant, but introduced from the 

 garden, where it is cultivated for the sake of the stalks, which contain 

 a warm aromatic flavour, with a degree of pungency ; and when 

 candied with sugar, form a pleasant sweetmeat agreeable to most per- 

 sons ; it is used as a carminative, and is thought to be little inferior 

 to ginger as a grateful stimulant and stomachic. The root possesses 

 the same properties, but in a stronger degree, and is used for the 

 same purposes as the stem, and also in the preparation of some of the 

 most esteemed liqueurs. It was formerly used as a medicine, and 

 admitted into the pharmacopaeias ; but in Iceland, Norway, Lapland, 

 and Siberia, it is more esteemed than with us ; the natives prepare 

 it as an article of diet, and to flavour other food. The young shoots 

 are either eaten candied or raw, with bread and butter, and at 

 one time it was supposed to be possessed of anti-pestilential powers, and 

 tended greatly to lengthen the span of life, for which purpose the 

 Laplanders and Norwegians are said to masticate it in the manner of 

 tobacco. 



VOL. I. 3 E 



