108 DIALYPETALOUS EXOGENS 



gibbous, crowned with the dilated base of the diverging styles; carpels with the 

 faces inclining to separate between the base and apex ; channels brown. 

 Hob. Waste places. Nat. of Europe. Fl. June. Fr. Sept. 



Obs. This foreigner is naturalized about some old settlements ; 

 and being a powerful narcotic poison, it ought to be known wherever 

 it exists. It is supposed, indeed, to be the very herb with which 

 the ancient Greeks put their philosophers and statesmen to death, 

 when they got tired of them. The root is said not to be poisonous. 



SUBORDER III. CCELOSPER'MAE. 



Inner face of the carpels hollowed transversely, or the base and apex curved in- 

 ward. 



169. CORlAtf'ORUM, Hoffm. 



[Gr. Koris, a bug ; the bruised leaves having the odor of a bed-bug.] 

 Fruit globose; stylopodium conical; carpels closely cohering; ribs 

 broad, obsolete; channels without vittae. Mostly annual : smooth ; 

 leaves bipinnately dissected ; involucre 1-leaved or none; involucels 

 halved, about 3-leaved; umbels few-rayed; flowers white, or tinged 

 with red before expanding. 



1. C. SATI V VUM, L. Segments of the lower leaves broadly cuneate, 

 of the upper ones narrow and linear ; carpels hemispherical. 

 CULTIVATED CORIANDRUM. Coriander. 



Stem 1 to 2 feet high, slender, somewhat branched at summit. Umbels spread- 

 ing, 3- to 5-rayed ; umbeUets of numerous short unequal rays ; carpels very concave 

 on the face, cohering by their margins so as to form apparently a simple globose 

 fruit ; commissure with 2 vittae in a loose membrane. 

 nab. Gardens. Nat. of Tartary. Fl. June. Fr. Aug. 



Obs. Occasionally cultivated for its aromatic fruit. Notwith- 

 standing the offensive odor of the fresh herb, Prof. DE CANDOLLE 

 states that the Tartars prepare a favorite potage from it. His words 

 are "Herba recens in deliciis habetur et ex ea* jusculum conficitur, 

 unde ubique in hortis Tataricis culta." Prodr. 4. p. 250. It would 

 probably require a Tartar palate to relish soup, prepared with her- 

 bage which has the "odor of a bed-bug!" 



ORDER XLV. ARALIACEAE. 



Herbs, or shrubs; leaves alternate, mostly compound, without stipules ; flowers in 

 simple umbels, or compound umbellulate racemes ; calyx-tube adherent to the 

 ovary; petals mostly 5, valvate in the bud; stamens as many as the petals, and 

 alternate with them ; ovary of 2, 3, 5, or more, connate carpels (with as many 

 etyles), becoming baccate or drupaceous in fruit, sometimes nearly dry ; seeds 

 solitary, appended to the apex of each cell (or carpel) ; embryo in the apex of fleshy 



170. ARAXIA, L. 



[Derivation of the name unknown; supposed of Canadian origin.] 

 Flowers mostly perfect: calyx mostly 5-toothed. Petals 5. Styles 

 5, finally divaricate. Fruit berry-like, often torulose, or 5-lobed. 

 Perennial herbs, or shrubs : flowers greenish-white. 



f Stems herbaceous. 



1. A. racem^sa., L. Stem widely branching, smooth ; leaves 

 ternately and quinately decompound, doubly serrate; leaflets cor- 



