144 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Show scarce so gross as beetles. Half-way down ; 



Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! 

 INIethinks he seems no bigger than his head : 

 The fishermen that walk upon the beach 

 Appear like mice." 



Samphire was in great reputation as a condiment in the time of Gerarde, "who 

 •wrote about the year 1597 thus : " The leaves kept in pickle and eaten in sallads 

 •with oile and vinegar is a pleasant sauce for meat, -wholsome for the stoppings of the 

 liver, milt, and kidnies. It is the pleasantest sauce, most familiar, and best agreeing 

 •with man's body.' Culpepper describes it as " an herb of Jupiter," and much deplores 

 that it had then gone out of fashion, for " it is well known almost to everybody that 

 ill digestions and obstructions are the cause of most of the diseases which the frail 

 nature of man is subject to ; both of which might be remedied by a more frequent use 

 of this herb." 



TiiiBE v.— ANGELICEJ3. 



Cremocarp dorsally compressed ; columella distinct ; mericarps 

 flattened from back to front, with 5 primary ridges, of which the 

 3 dorsal ones are filiform or slightly winged, the marginal ones 

 developed into a broad wing ; the wings of the two mericarps not 

 contiguous, so that the fruit has a double wing all round. Seed 

 flat on the inner face. Flowers in regular compound umbels. 



GENUS XXr.—A N G E L I C A. Zi?in. 



Calyx-limb obsolete. Petals lanceolate, acuminate, entire, with 

 the point erect or incurved. Cremocarp oval or oblong, much 

 compressed from back to back of the mericarps, surrounded 

 by a double wing ; columella free, bipartite ; mericarps flattened 

 from back to face, with the 3 dorsal ridges filiform or thick, the 

 marginal ones developed into a broad wing ; interstices each with 

 a single vitta or with none. Involucres none or of few leaves. 



Plants with ternate-pinnately decompound leaves, and com- 

 pound umbels of white or pale-pink flowers. Easily distinguishable 

 from the other British genera of Umbelliferse by the fruit being 

 surrounded by a double wing. 



The name of this genus has reference to the supposed angelic properties of the 

 species, and comes from angelus, an angel. 



Sub-Genus I.— EU-ANGELICA. J). C. 



Calyx-limb obsolete ; mericarps flattened, with the dorsal and 

 intermediate pair of ridges filiform, the lateral pair produced into 



