52 UMBELIJFER^ 



hy the water's edge, its flat umbels of white flowers appearing in July and 

 August. The steins are furrowed, and the pinnate leaves are large, and 

 composed of from five to nine distant leaflets. 



2. Narrow -leaved Water Parsnip (S. angustifdlimn). — Leaves 

 pinnate ; leaflets unequally cut, egg-shaped, the upper ones narrower ; umbels 

 opposite the leaves, stalked. Plant perennial. This species, though rare in 

 Scotland, is not unfrequent in England. It is a much smaller plant than the 

 last, and very much resembles the procumbent marshwort. It may be dis- 

 tinguished from it by its stalked umbels, and by its having general and partial 

 bracts. Its white ixmliels appear in July and August. 



Though our Water Parsnip is not fitted for food, yet a species of this 

 genus furnished the Skirret of our ancestors. This is the Slum sisarum, and 

 it is still occasionally cultivated for its tubers, which are very wholesome 

 when eaten boiled with butter. Our old gardeners and herbalists make 

 much mention of the Skirret; and many old poets, as Michael Drayton, 

 have praised this root. It once found a place in all the best kitchen gardens, 

 but it is now rarely found in England except in cottage gardens ; though 

 the Scottish peasant still cultivates it under the name of Crummack. This 

 Skirret is so full of saccharine matter, that a chemist extracted from half a 

 pound of the roots one ounce and a half of pure sugar. 



The Skirret is indigenous to China, but was introduced into this country 

 about the middle of the sixteenth century. Worlidge, commenting on it in 

 his work on "Husbandry," written at the latter end of the seventeenth 

 century, calls it " the sweetest, Avhitest, and most wholesome of roots ;" and 

 it is believed to be the plant which the Emperor Tiberius valued so highly 

 as to send for it to the banks of the Rhine. It is too sweet to be generally 

 pleasing to modern palates. 



15. Hare's-ear {Bupleunm). 



1. Narrow -leaved Hare's-ear {B. aristdtiim). — Stem branched; 

 leaves linear-lanceolate, sharply pointed, and 3-nerved ; leaves of the partial 

 involucres longer than the umbels, lanceolate, and suddenly tapering to a 

 point, somewhat awncd ; flower-stalks short, equal. Plant annual. This is 

 a small species, from three to six inches in height, with stifT leaves of a pale 

 yellow green, and marked with lines. They have a pungent flavour. The 

 leaves of all this genus are remarkable among umbelliferous plants as being 

 undivided, the foliage of nearly all the other genera being cut into various 

 divisions and subdivisions. The greenish-yellow flowers appear in July. 

 The plant is rare, and is found on rocks about Torquay, also in Sussex and 

 the Channel Islands. 



2. Common Hare's-ear, or Thorow-wax {B. rotundifdlium). — Stem 

 branched above ; general involucre wanting, partial ones large, bristle-pointed, 

 thrice as long as the flowers ; leaves perfoliate, roundish, oval ; root animal. 

 This is a singular plant, readily distinguished by its perfoliate leaves of a 

 glaucous green hue, and in July by its large greenish-yellow partial involucres, 

 which are far more conspicuous than the small greenish-yellow flowers which 

 are to bo seen on the plant at that season. The root is said to be astringent, 

 and the plant was formerly much used as a vulnerary. The English name 



