140 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



In meadows, pastures, and on commons. Ercquent in the 

 Eastern and Midland counties of England ; rare in the Western 

 counties and in Scotland, where it occurs about Oxenford Castle, 

 near Kelso, also at Aberledy and near Dalkeith, Haddingtonshire. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Autumn. 



Hoot fasciculate. Rootstock without stolons, elongated, thick- 

 ened, dark-brown, wrinkled. Stem erect, 1 to 3 feet high, tough, 

 solid, slightly branched and nearly leafless above, clothed at the 

 base with the fibrous remains of decayed leaf-stalks. Radical 

 leaves rather shortly stalked, rhomboidal - triangular in outline, 

 ternately 2, 3, or even 4 times pinnate, according to the depth of 

 the divisions between the segments; terminal leaflets 3-cleft, 

 lateral ones or segments entire ; segments i to f inch long, variable 

 in breadth ; stem-leaves similar to the radical ones, but less divided, 

 and with leaf-stalks dilated at the base. Umbel rays 4 to 12, 

 rather unequal, 1 to 2 inches long, slightly curving inwards ; pedicels 

 ^ to ^ inch ; involucels of numerous leaves, with scarious margins, 

 shorter than the pedicels. Elowers ^-q inch across, very pale dirty- 

 yellow ; petals broad, truncate at the base and apex, with an incurved 

 lobe. Stylopods large, with a waved margin. Cremocarp ^ inch 

 long, dark-brown, with 4 to 6 vittse on the commissural face of the 

 mericarps. Plant glabrous, dark-green. 



Meadoio Sulplmrwort. 



French, Silaus des Pres. German, Wiesen Silau. 



The whole of this plant, when bruised, gives out an unpleasant odour, which is 

 supposed, in some parts of Norfolk, to affect the milk and butter of cows feeding in 

 pastures where it grows. It does not appear, however, that tliey eat it unless acci- 

 dentally, as it is generally found uncropped in a field with other herbage. 



GENUS XXIIL—M E U M. Tournef. 



Calyx-limb obsolete. Petals elliptical or oval, tapering at the 

 base, incurved at the point. Cremocarp oblong-ovoid, not com- 

 pressed ; columella free, bipartite ; mericarps with 5 prominent 

 sharply-keeled equal ridges; interstices each with several vittse. 

 Involucres none. 



Herbs with decompound leaves and white or pink flowers. 



This genus of plants is identical with the jxfiov (meon) of Dioscorides ; and the 

 name is probably derived from ixewy {meion), small, from the extreme delicacy and 

 fineness of the leaves of the species. 



