UMBELLIFERiE. 119 



tributed in England ; rare in Scotland, where it occurs in Dum- 

 fries, Iladdington, Eorfarshire, &c. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer 

 and Autumn. 



Rootstock creeping, stoloniferous, producing tufts of radical 

 leaves and flowering-stems 1 to 3 feet high. Hadical leaves erect, 

 on long stalks, with 5 to 10 pair of ovate sessile pinnae, 1 to 2 inches 

 long. Elowering-stem flexuous, i to ^ inch in diameter, smooth, 

 finely striate. Stem-leaves numerous, with the petiole dilated at the 

 base as in the radical leaves ; upper ones with the whole of the very- 

 short petiole dilated ; leaflets fewer and smaller than in the radical 

 leaves, those of the upper ones more deeply and remotely toothed. 

 Umbels with few and somewhat unequal rays, J to 1 inch long; 

 umbellules irregular, with rather few pedicels, the longest ^ to J inch 

 long. Leaves of the involucre variable in form, some of them often 

 large and inciso-serrate. Cremocarp -^ inch long, dark-brown, with 

 the ridges concolorous ; vittse not apparent on the surface. Whole 

 plant pale-green, glabrous. 



Water-Far snip . 



French, Berle d, Feuilles Etroites. German, Schmcdhldttrige Berle. 



GENUS XVL—B UPLEURUM. mm. 



Calyx-limb obsolete. Petals roundish, entire or nearly so, 

 incurved. Cremocarp oval-ovoid or oblong-ovoid, laterally com- 

 pressed ; columella free, bipartite or bifid ; mericarps with 5 ridges, 

 which are sometimes filiform, sometimes winged, sometimes 

 scarcely perceptible ; interstices usually each with one or more 

 vittre. Involucre variable. 



Herbs, with entire leaves usually surrounded by a transparent 

 cartilaginous margin, and yellowish flowers, with the involucels 

 generally longer than the rays of the umbellules. This is one of 

 the few genera amongst the Umbelliferse which are really natural, 

 and fortunately it has not been divided on account of slight dif- 

 ferences in the fruit, such as are used to separate many of the 

 preceding genera. The entire leaves give Bupleurum a habit very 

 different from that of the other Umbelliferse. 



The origin of the name of this genus of plants is variously given. One author 

 says it comes fi'om /3oi/c (bous), ox, and TrXevpov (pleuron), a rib — rib-leaved plants ; 

 while another says it is derived from ftovg {bous), an ox, and irXevpoy {lileuron), a side ; 

 the same words, but differently considered, the latter meaning being a reference to a 

 supposed bad quality in the plants of swelling the oxen that partake of them. 



