UMBELLIFERiE. 177 



section has a hollow space which resemhles the arrangement of the 

 vascular bundles * in the stipes of the common Brake Pern. Invo- 

 lucre various. 



Herbs with the leaves various, the flowers yellow or yellowish- 

 green, often polygamous. Pruit black when ripe. 



The name of this genus of plants, derived from the Greek word ujxvpva (smurna), 

 a synonyme of nvpfm {murra), the odour of Myrrh, is common to many umbelliferous 

 plants. Among others the Myrrhis odorata, for which reason it is so named. 



SPECIES I.— SMYRNIUM OLUSATRUM. Linn. 

 Plate DCXXXI. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 3102. 



Stem-leaves biternate or ternate, with much- dilated sheath-like 

 petioles ; leaflets of all the leaves ovate or oval, slightly lobed and 

 crenate. 



On banks by the coast, in waste places and hedge-banks, espe- 

 cially in the vicinity of ruins. Not uncommon, but probably not 

 native in many of its stations. 



England, [Scotland,] Ireland. Perennial or Biennial. Spring. 



Root thick, fleshy. Stem erect, 1 to 4 feet high, stout, solid, 

 striate, paniculately branched, the branches on the upper part 

 frequently opposite. Badical leaves on long stalks, triternate, with 

 the leaflets all stalked ; lower stem-leaves similar, but with shorter 

 stalks ; the upper ones often opposite and simply ternate, with the 

 petioles dilated so as to form a spathe-like sheath. Umbels of 3 

 to 15 glabrous furrowed rays, J to 2 inches long ; pedicels about 

 as long as the cremocarp. Plowers 1-2 iiicli across, very pale 

 greenish-yellow. Cremocarp f inch long and scarcely so broad, 

 black, consisting of 2 semicircular-ovoid mericarps, constricted at 

 the commissure, with prominent ridges, the whole surface irre- 

 gularly wrinkled. Stylopods conical ; styles about as long as the 

 stylopod, reflexed so as to be applied to the stylopod. Plant pale- 

 green, glabrous, slightly shining. 



Common Alexanders. 



French, Maceron. German, Smyrenhraut or Pferdseppich. 



This plant was formally eaten as a salad or potherb, and abounds at the present 

 time in the neighbourhood of old monasteries and other places, in the gardens of 

 which it was at one time cultivated for use. The young shoots and the leaf-stalks 

 were the parts eaten. It has, when raw, somewhat the flavour of celery, and was, like 



•■ Popularly known as " King Charles's Oak." 

 VOL. IV. 2 A 



