150 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



stices ; wing about one-fifth of the solid portion, cordate at the 

 base ; commissure with the vitta) concealed. Plant light-green, 

 glabrous, with scabrous lines along the upper side of the divisions 

 of the petiole and the midribs of the lealiets. 



Marsh Uog^ s-Fennel. 



This plant is known as the Milk Parsley, and possesses the same stimulating 

 qualities as the former species. In Russia the roots are used as a substitute for 

 ginger. Both plants owe their properties to a substance chemically known as 

 Peucedanium, which is a very acrid crystalline principle, contained in the foetid yellow 

 juice extracted chiefly from the root of the plant. 



Section III.— IMPERATOEIA. Linn. 



Calyx-teeth obsolete. Wings of the mericarps rather narrow ; 

 interstices with solitary vittse ; commissural vittse superficial. Invo- 

 lucre none. 



SPECIES III.— PEUCEDANUM OSTRUTHIUM. Koch. 



J Plate DCXI. 



Imperatoria Ostruthium, Linn. Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 1380. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et 

 Helv. ed. ii. p. 336. D. C. Prod. Vol. IV. p. 183. 



Leaves biternate or ternate, with the leaflets 3-cleft or -lobed ; 

 lobes ovate, inciso-serrate. Involucre absent. Plowers white. 

 Pedicels longer than the fruit. Cremocarp roundish-oval, much 

 compressed ; mericarps each with 5 slender ridges, the 3 central 

 ones contiguous, prominent, the 2 lateral ones remote and less 

 elevated. 



In moist meadows and by road- sides. Rare, though occurring 

 in most of the counties of the North of England and in Scotland, 

 but very doubtfully native. 



England, Scotland. Perennial. Summer. 



Stem erect, 18 inches to 3 feet high, stout, round, striate, hollow, 

 slightly branched, the branches often opposite. Hadical leaves on 

 long stalks, somewhat resembling those of ^gopodium, but with 

 the leaflets less separated and broader towards the apex, and more 

 cut, IJ to 3 inches long ; stem-leaves similar, less divided, on short 

 spathe-like petioles. Rays of the umbel 20 to 40, slender, 2 to 3 

 inches long, pedicels }f -to ^ inch. Elowers ^-^ inch across, white, 

 not radiant. Calyx-segments obsolete. Petals oval, incurved. Cre- 

 mocarp -J inch long, olive, with a pale border, the 3 dorsal ridges 



