UMBELLIFER^ 539 



are absent. As in many umbellifers, the petals are turned 

 in at the tip. The fruit (Fig. 222) is flattened laterally, 

 broader than long, smooth or covered with protuberances. 

 The mericarps have pronounced corky ribs; the oil tubes are 

 solitary in the intervals, with two on the commissural side. 



Geographical. — There are about i8 species in this group, distributed chiefly 

 in the Eastern Hemisphere. There are two well-known cultivated species 

 (parsley and celery) both of which are natives of Europe, and an indigenous 

 species, Apium leplophyllimi. These three species are distinguished in the 

 following key. 



Key to Principal Spfxiks of Apium 



Flowers greenish-yellow, Apimn petroselimim (common parsley). 

 Flowers white. 



Leaf segments broad, Apium graveolens (celery and celeriac). 



Leaf segments narrow, Apium leptophyllum (fine-leaved marsh parsley). 



APIUM PETROSELINUM (Parsley) 



Description. — Common garden parsley is a biennial, the 

 first season throwing out a dense whorl of radical leaves that 

 are bipinnate, triangular in outline, and with the segments 

 ovate, and dentate or incised. During the second season, 

 there is sent up an erect, highly branched stem, i to 3 feet 

 high. The upper leaves are also bipinnate, but the seg- 

 ments are linear-oblong and entire. 



The inflorescence is a compound umbel with linear involu- 

 cral bracts and awl-shaped involucellate bractlets. The 

 flowers are greenish-yellow. The fruit is ovate, smooth, and 

 with pronounced ribs. 



When large parsley seed is used the plants from them have 

 larger and earlier foKage and are more capable of renewing the 

 tops after being cut back than plants from small seed. 



Varieties. — As to leaf characters, there are two types of 

 parsley : 



