Ifoerbaceous plants. 317 



THE PARSLEY FAMILY. 



Sea Holly, Eryngiummaritimum. A rather ornamental 

 thistle-like plant with pale, glaucous leaves, cordate, long 

 petioled with wavy and spiny edges. Stem leaves palmately 

 lobed ; flowers pale blue in small heads. Common on the 

 seashore, useful in seaside-gardening. It is also very de- 

 sirable in rockeries. E. amethystinum, steins erect, one or 

 two feet high, with lanceolate leaves ; root leaves pinnati- 

 fid, spiny ; flowers of a beautiful amethyst color, in globose 

 heads. Grows best in sandy loam, otherwise useful for the 

 same purpose as the preceding one. 



Sweet Cicely, Myrrliis odorata. A very desirable plant 

 with finely decompound leaves, and leafy, flowering stems 

 bearing ample compound umbels of white flowers. Forms 

 a large leafy mass two or three feet high. The leaves are 

 sweet-scented. Suitable for naturalizing on grassy banks 

 and even as a foliage plant in moist places of the rockery 

 or in old orchards. 



Giant Fennel, Ferula communis. One of the most effec- 

 tive, hardy, foliage plants forming a mass of beautifully 

 green, feathery leaves four or five feet high ; flowers yellow, 

 umbellate, forming an inflorescence eight feet high. It is 

 handsome as a specimen on the lawn or in the background 

 of rockeries. Prefers a rich sandy loam. 



Cow Parsnip, Heradeum gigantwn. A coarse and very 

 large foliage plant eight or ten feet high ; leaves pinuatifid, 

 several feet long ; flowers white, umbellate. In large 

 grounds on the margins of streams and lakes. 



