128 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



By the sides of brackish ditches, or more rarely in fresh- water 

 marshes. Not uncommon, and generally distributed in England ; 

 rare in Scotland, where it occurs in the West Lowlands, Argyle, 

 Dumbarton, and Iladdington. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer 

 and Autumn. 



This plant bears a very close resemblance to the two preceding. 

 The root-fibres, however, are generally not at all thickened, but 

 taper gradually from near the base to the apex ; occasionally, how- 

 ever, there is a slight enlargement, and Mr. H. C. Watson gives 

 figures of root-fibres of this species, which are as much thickened 

 as those of (E. silaifolia (Phyt. 1846, p. 398). The dissimilarity in 

 shape of the segments of the lower and upper leaves is sufiicient to 

 distinguish it from CE. silaifolia, even when not in fruit, and the 

 umbellules not being contiguous from (E. pimpinelloides. The 

 flowers are smaller, less radiant, and the exterior petals are more 

 orbicular, with the apical notch more completely concealed by the 

 overlapping of the lobes than in either of these. When the plant is 

 in fruit, it cannot be confounded with any other British species, as 

 the fruit is shorter, ^-q inch long, with a circular and not a prismatic 

 cross-section, and with an oval-obovate longitudinal section ; the 

 ridges are less corky, there is no thickened ring at the base, and the 

 calyx-teeth rise from the centre of the rounded top instead of being 

 a continuation of the nearly straight sides : the cross-section of the 

 fruit at the origin of the calyx-teeth in (E. silaifolia and (E. pim- 

 pinelloides is as large as or larger than that taken at any other 

 point in the cremocarp, while in CE. Lachenalii the cross-section 

 taken at the origin of the calyx-teeth is not half the diameter of 

 that at the widest part of the mature cremocarp. 



I'arsley JVater-Dropwort. 



French, CEnanthe de Lachenal. German, LachenaVs r/erdesaat. 



SPECI ES v.— CE NANTHE CROCATA. Linn. 

 Plate DXCVII. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. JN'o. 1675. 



lloot-fibres very large, much thickened, fusiform or oblong- or 

 ovate-fusiform. Stem erect, tough, branched, sulcated, without sto- 

 lons or radical fibres above the tubers. Ultimate leaflets of the 

 radical leaves roundish or ovate, more or less deeply cut, with 

 blunt segments ; upper stem-leaves with the leaflets rhomboidal 

 or wadge-shaped, cut, with the segments blunt or acute. Umbels 

 of very numerous rays, slightly thickened after flowering ; umbel- 



