162 PARSLEY FAMILY. 



* ♦ » * Leaves, or especialJi/ the petioles, and the peduncles or scapes, bristli/- 



hairy, these all from a fleshy tuberous or creeping rootstock. 

 ■*- Leaves large, obliquely heart-shaped, toothed or merely wavy-marcjined, variously 

 silvered or varieyated above, reddish or purple beneath : flowers rather large 

 but not showy : cultivated for their foliage, now much crossed and mixed. 

 B. Rex, the most prized and now the commonest species of the group, with 

 the leaf silver-banded or silvery all over the u]iper face, and smooth pale rose- 

 colored flowers. 



B. Grififithii, like the preceding, but leaves and stalks more downy-hairy, 

 and the almost white flowers hairy outside. 



B. xanthina, with leaves, &c. much as in the two preceding, but the 

 flowers yellow. 



■*- -t- Leaves deeply about 1-cleJl : flowers with only the 2 sepals, no petals. 



B. heracleifblia, with rather large and rounded hardly oblique leaves, 

 smooth above and sometimes variegated, the lobes broad lanceolate and cut- 

 toothed, and small pale rose or whitish flowers. 



54. UMBELLIFER^, PARSLEY FAMILY. 



Herbs, some innocent and many of them aromatic, others acrid- 

 narcotic poisons, with small flowers in umbels, calyx adherent to 

 the 2-celled ovary which has a single ovule hanging from the sum- 

 mit of each cell, 5 minute calyx-teeth or none, 5 petals, 5 stamens, 

 and 2 styles ; the dry fruit usually splitting into 2 seed-like portions 

 or akenes : seed with hard albumen and a minute embryo. Eryn- 

 giura and one or two others have the flowers in heads instead of 

 umbels. Stems usually hollow. Leaves alternate, more commonly 

 compound or decompound. Umbels mostly co-npound : the circle 

 of bracts often present at the base of the general umbel is called 

 the involucre ; that at the base of an umbellet, the involucel. 



The flowers being much alike in all, the characters have to be 

 taken from the form of the fruit, and much stress is laid upon the 

 receptacles of aromatic oil (vittce or oil-tubes) which are found in 

 most species and give characteristic flavor. The family is too dif- 

 ficult for the beginner. So that only the common cultivated, and 

 the most conspicuous or noteworthy wild species are given here. 

 For the remainder the student is referred to the Manual, and to 

 Chapman's Southern Flora. 



^ 1. Fruits covered imth little scales or tubercles, croicded {as are the foxoers) in a 

 head instead of an umbel, and with a pointed scaly bract under each fioioer. 



1. ERYNGIUM. Flowers blue or white, with evident awl-shaped calyx-teeth, 



and top-shaped fruit without any ribs. Leaves in our species simple and 

 with bristly or prickly teeth. 



§ 2. Fruits covered tdth bnstly prickles, bur-like : umbels compound. 



2. SANICULA. Flowers greenish or yellowish, so short-stalked or nearly sessile 



that the umbellets appear like little heads, each with some perfect and fertile 

 and some staminate flowers. Fruits ovoid or globular, not readily splitting 

 in two, not ribbed, completely covered with short hooked prickles. Leaves 

 palmately parted. 

 8. DAUCUS. Flowers white or cream-color, in a regular compound umbel: the 

 petals unequal, or those of the marginal flowers larger. Prickles in rows on 

 the ribs of the short fruit, which splits in two when ripe. Leaves pinnately 

 compound or decompound. 



