26o THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



and about one hundred and eighty genera which are 

 found in all parts of the world, but principally in the 

 N. Temperate regions. 



They include herbaceous plants with the internodes 

 hollow as a rule and stout stems. The leaves are 

 alternate, pinnate, and compound, rarely simple, as 

 in White Rot. The leafstalk is swollen below, as in 

 Angelica. There are no stipules. 



The inflorescence is a simple or compound umbel, 

 giving the name to the order, with an involucre of 

 bracts in a whorl below the primary umbels, and 

 bracteoles, forming involucres, below the secondary 

 umbels. The simple umbels are cymose. 



The flowers are small, regular, hermaphrodite, 

 epigynous. The calyx is gamosepalous, and superior, 

 five-lobed or entire, the odd sepal posterior. The 

 corolla consists of five petals inserted on an epigynous 

 disk, the tips often bent inward. 



The stamens are five, at the base of the disk, 

 epigynous, with the anther-stalks bent inwards, the 

 anthers being versatile and opening inwards. The 

 disk is epigynous on the top of the ovary, prolonged 

 above into two short styles. The latter are erect, 

 or bent back with blunt stigmas. The pistil is 

 syncarpous, and the ovary consists of two carpels 

 and is two-celled. The fruit is a cremocarp, con- 

 sisting of two mericarps adnate to, or pendulous 

 from, an entire or split carpophore. The cremocarps 

 are separated by a commissure and indehiscent. 

 The carpels bear raised ridges, between which are 



