HEDGE PARSLEY 189 



part of Great Britain, from Moray and Islay, southward, to the English 

 Channel. In Yorks it is found at a height of 1350 ft. 



Hedge Parsley, as implied by the name, is a plant of the wayside 

 hedge, where it is so common as to form a regular border beneath 

 the hawthorn itself. It is also as common in fields, where it plays the 

 same part, lining each hedgerow or ditch for long distances together. 

 It is only ousted by such hardy plants as Hogweed, &c., or a struggling 

 Briar or a Hawthorn bush. 



The name Hedge Parsley is often prefixed, in speaking of it, by 

 the word upright, and it is indeed a tall, erect, rigid plant, quite unlike 

 Knotted Hedge Parsley, which is trailing, often hiding under the grass. 



The stems are branched, hard, and woody, not hollow, finely fur- 

 rowed, and covered with turned-back hairs, and have a roughish feel. 

 The stem is purplish toward the base, and the hairs give it a grey 

 appearance. The leaves are much divided, are bipinnate, with lobes 

 each side of a common stalk divided again, distant, spreading, with 

 broad coarsely-toothed leaflets, the terminal one linear- lance-shaped. 

 The nodes are distant. 



At first purple or red, the flowers become white ultimately, like 

 those of many other Umbellifers, and are contained in moderate 

 umbels, with nearly equal petals, the general involucre containing 

 numerous leaves. The fruit is short and prickly, but the prickles 

 are straight 



When not hidden under the hedge and dwarfed, this plant may 

 reach a height of 4 ft. It is in bloom during July and August. It 

 is annual, dispersed by seeds. 



The flowers are polygamous, white, and the outer rayed, and very 

 small. The petals are turned inwards at the point. The styles are 

 short and erect. Occasionally it is anclromoncecious, i.e. with herma- 

 phrodite and male flowers on the same plant, and complete flowers 

 with anthers ripening first in the centre. 



The 5 anthers are hair-like, the filaments project, and the anthers 

 are double, longer than the 2 stigmas, ultimately turned backwards. 

 The plant is more likely to be cross-pollinated than self-pollinated. 



The visitors are few, as Diptera, Gymnosoma\ Hymenoptera, Ten- 

 thredo, Ceropales, Odynems, Prosopis; Lepidoptera, Pieris rap&. 



The fruits are curved inwards, adapted for dispersal by catching 

 in the fur of passing animals. 



This is a sand-loving plant, growing in a sand soil in which there 

 is some amount of humus soil, or in a sandy loam with a little clay 

 mixed with the sand. 



