363 



inconspicuous that it is difficult to detect it. The exterior florets of 

 llie imibellule are elevated upon long pedicels, and being barren, drop 

 off, leaving only the dense, fertile, almost sessile florets of the centre, 

 whose divergent styles become very stiff and bristly, and though 

 white at first, assume ultimately a bright vinaceous tint. This species 

 flowers early in May, nearly a month before OE. pirapinelloides, and 

 has altogether vanished from the scene long before QE. Lachenalii 

 appears. 



(K. Lachenalii varies much in size according to the place where it 

 grows, but rises to upwards of four feet in height if growing in a deep 

 ditch, the stem striated and fistulose. The radical leaves, when pre- 

 sent, are discriminative, and very different from those of pimpinelloi- 

 des ; they are simply pinnate, with pinnatifid, bifid, or trifid pinnae, 

 their segments broadly lanceolate, entire, blunt. The radical and 

 stem-leaves are all on long, membranous petioles, and sometimes the 

 latter in small specimens quite agree in character with the former, but 

 in general they are simply pinnate, the pinnae linear-lanceolate, very 

 acute ; the lower stem-leaves are sometimes bipinnate, or rather the 

 pinnae have their segments bifid or trifid, but the upper leaves are 

 always simply pinnate. The general involucre consists of six, seven, 

 or eight linear leaflets, often attended by a simple elongated leaf, but 

 it is by no means constantly present, though more generally so than 

 in the two other species. The umbels consist of five to sixteen 

 spreading radii on long peduncles ; the umbellules consist of nume- 

 rous florets, the external ones barren, on long pedicels, the internal 

 ones crowded together, almost sessile. Involucella of many lanceo- 

 late leaflets, paler and membranous at the edges, shorter than the 

 exterior pedicels. Petals white, radiant, obcordate, smaller than in 

 either QL. peucedanifolia or pimpinelloides, nor are the flowers so ag- 

 gregated as in the latter species. 



Mr. Babington in his Manual refers the CE. pimpinelloides of Smith, 

 in ' English Botany,' 347, to this, and I believe that (E. Lachenalii is 

 there really represented, though the root is not fully given.* In the 

 'English Flora ' it is likely enough that CE. Lachenalii and pimpinel- 

 loides were confounded together, but from Smith's statement of the ra- 

 dical leaves being "doubly pinnate," and the leaflets "wedge-shaped 

 with one or two notches," I conclude he had pimpinelloides at least 



* I have carefully compared specimens of CE. Lachenalii with this plate, and there- 

 fore so far coincide with ^Ir. Babington. Yet I am inclined to think, that in the En- 

 fiUsh Flora, Smith had also CE. pimpinelloides in his contemplation. 



