334 THE PAESLEY FAMILY. 



except at considerable elevations, where the climate is that of tem- 

 perate latitudes. Fifteen hundred species are estimated as its contents, 

 sixty-seven being found in Britain, and thirty of them near Manchester. 

 Few families are beset with so many difficulties. It is an old botani- 

 cal axiom, that the easier it is to tell the family a plant belongs to, the 

 harder it is to discriminate the species and the genus ; and nowhere 

 does that axiom apply more forcibly than in the case of the Umbel- 

 liferse. Most systems of classification begin with the consideration of 

 the ripe fruit ; but as our object at present is to discriminate them 

 while in flower, we prefer to make our starting point the Leaf. 



A. 

 Leaves circular, crenate, on stalks three or four inches 

 high, and resembling little tables. Umbels ex- 

 tremely minute, their stalks under an inch in 



height. (Fig. 179 ) 1. Maesh Pexnywoet. 



B. 

 Leaves roundish, cut into about five deep and equal 

 lobes, and vei7 glossy. Stems slender, twelve to 

 eighteen inches high. Umbels small, crowded 



into heads. Flowers minute, dull white 2. Sanicle. 



C. 

 Leaves oval or triangular in outline, more or less deeply cut into leaflets ; 



generally very much so. 

 • Leaves pinnate, the leaflets often pinnatifid. General outline of the leaf oval 



or egg-shaped. 

 + Groicing on dry land. 

 Stems prostrate, a foot long, rough. Umbels simple, 



lateral, and sessile 24. Knotted Bukweed. 



Stems upright. 

 Petioles remarkably dilated, so as to form pouches for 

 the buds. (Fig. 174:.) Plant two to four feet 

 high, large, coarse, and rough. Leaves com- 

 posed of three to five large leaflets, the ter- 

 minal one three-lobed. Outer flowers larger 



than the inner ones 21. Cow-parsnip. 



Petioles not remarkably lUlated ; leaflets numerous. 

 Leaflets sessile, and all very much pinnatifid ; the 



lobes narrow, and crossing one another. ... 9. Cabaway. 

 All, or many of the leaflets, especially at the base, 

 oval or circular. 

 Leaflets round, but often deeply pinnatifid ; stems 



slightly fun-owed 11. Meadow Pimpinei,. 



Leaflets egg-shnped, coarsely serrated ; the ter- 

 minal leaflet three-lobed ; stem deeply 

 furrowed 12. Geeateb Pimpinel. 



