11U 



l-MI'.KIt. 



11M 



stems. The leave* are, io moat cues, divided ; sometimes they are 

 simple ; they are alternate, and all of them embrace or clasp the 

 stem by a sheathing petiole. Tho flowers are white, pink, y.-llow, or 

 blue, and are seated on umbels, which are either simple or compound, 

 aud these are with or without bracts at their base, which are called 

 involucre, or involuccllum, as they surround the urabrls, or umbel- 

 lules. The calyx is superior, either entire or 5-tootbed. The petals 

 are 5, and are inserted on the outside of a fleshy disc, which is placed 

 on the top of the ovarium ; they are usually indexed st the point, 

 and have an imbricate, rarely valvate (estivation. The stamens are 5, 

 and are seated alternately with the petals, and are incurved during 

 .estivation. The ovary is inferior, 2-celled, having solitary pendulous 

 ovules, and is crowned by the disc, on which the petals are seated ; 

 the styles are two, distinct, with simple stigma?. The fruit, which is 

 ordinarily called the seed, consists of 2 carpels, which ore united by 

 a common axis, the part by which they unite being called the com- 

 missure ; the external part of each carpel is traversed by elevated 

 ridges, which are divided into primary and secondary; there ore 

 5 of the latter, and 4, between them, of the former ; the ridges are 

 separated by channels, below which are often placed, in the covering 

 of the fniit, little receptacles of coloured oily matter, which arc called 

 vitta?. The seed, which is pendulous, usually adheres to the sides of 

 the cell of the fruit, and this has led to the confounding the seed and 

 fruit together. The embryo is minute, and is seated iu the midst of 

 a horny albumen, with the radicle pointing to the hilum. 



I 





5 4 



J[ydrocotyle SptiHanthr. 



1, cutting, (bowing urnbeli with flowen and fruit; 1, flower enlarged; 3, 

 fruit; i, tnnivrrM wction of fruit; S, tted removed from pcrloirp, with tmuli 

 caibfgo and Urge albumen. 



The order agrees with JtanuHculacm in its sheathing leaves, as well 

 as ita large albumen and its acrid pro]x>rties. Other relations have 

 been pointed out, a with Ktxifrayuctu, (Jtraniateir, also with Aralia- 

 rra, from which it differs little, except iu the number of the parts of 

 the flower. 



The following conspectus will show the sub-orders and tribes into 

 which numerous genera of this order have been distributed by I)e 

 Candolle : 



Uulinrtr. 



Sanirulrtr. 



< Ammiitrif. 



Sub-Order I. Orthoifrrmra Albumen of wd fl^it on AneMc"* 

 innrr lurficr, neither involute nor convolute. 



Bub-Ordor II. Cnm n li f trm,a'.M\>nmtT, rolled inward. 

 t the rdgn 



Otimiitftr. 

 napiira: 

 iJattfinrtr. 



Sub-0rd*r III. CtrlMpermfa. 

 from tow to apex. 



-Albumen curved inwards ) _ 



| Carlanilrnr. 



Tausch has more recently proposed another arrangement, ami 

 objected to the albumen being made the basis of the primary divisions 

 of the order. 



The genera include above 1000 species. These are principally 

 inhabitants of the northern temperate zone, and the greater number 

 of them are found in the Old World. The proportion of species in 

 the southern half of the world, compared with the northern, i as one 

 to four; that of the New to the Old World, as one to three. Very few 

 of the species are found in the tropics, and about 50 are enumerated 

 as inhabitants of Australia. 



The properties of this order are variable, and very important. One 

 of the distinguishing characters of the order is the possession of an 

 acrid principle which finds its full development in such plants as the 

 Hemlock [CoNtuM 1 , the Cow-Bane [CICCTA], (Enantlie, JfeloKiadium, 

 jfitltiua, lie. This renders the whole order suspicious, more especially 

 the vegetation, in which the poisonous principle is most developed. 

 The acrid properties of these plants seem to depend upon the posses- 

 sion of a peculiar principle, which in as far as it has been examined 

 in some of the species possesses alkaline properties. This is the 

 case with Conia, a principle obtained from the Hemlock [CoNifMJ, 

 which has been examined with the most care, although other plants 

 of the order have been found to yield similar principles, but not pos- 

 sessing so much activity. Conia is remarkable amongst the vegetable 

 alkaloids, for being fluid, volatile, and easily decomposed ; and it is 

 probable that most plants whose poisonous properties are dissipated 

 by beat possess a principle of a similar nature. In this respect there 

 in also another analogy between the I'mbdliftra and Jlanunculace", 

 the poisonous qualities of the species of the last order b. ing in a 

 great measure annihilated by heat. It is not improbable that all the 

 I'mbdlifera may possess a principle similar in nature, though not in 

 intensity, to the Conia, and that it may contribute in some measure to 

 render such plants as the parsley, samphire, and celery, desirable as 

 articles of diet. 



Another important secretion of the UnibdHftra is a volatile oil, 

 This secretion isfound in all the species, with the exception of C'oniiiin, 

 deposited in the canals of the peric irp, which are called vitta). In 

 some of the species it is more abundant than in others : ami on this 

 account the fruit, which is commonly called the seeds, is u. 

 juently in diet as a condiment, and in medicine as an aromatic and 

 carminative. Of these the carraway, the anise, the dill, the cumin, 

 and coriander are beat known. 



A third secretion of these plants is a gum-resin. This probably, 

 like the last two secretions, is common to the whole order, but is 

 fully developed in only a few species. The guiurresins produced by 

 this order have had a great reputation in medicine, and many of them 

 are still looked on as valuable remedies. The Laser, or Silphion, of 

 the ancients, is secreted by plants belonging to this order, and assafco- 

 tida, galbanum, gura-ammouiacum, opoponax, and sagapenum aro 

 much used as stimulant medicines in nervous diseases at the present 

 day. Many of the species when wounded exude in small quantities 

 a gum-resinous matter. 



A fourth secretion, which also on account of its occasional excess 

 renders this order important to man, is starch. This secretion, 

 which forms to large a portion of the food of animals, is deposited in 

 largest quantities in the roots of the carrot, the par.'uep, the skirret, 

 and the aracaoba of the South Americans, and on this account these 

 plants are extensively cultivated. Most of the roots however contain 

 this principle, and might be u.=ed as articles of diet, but they also 

 contain the poisonous principle of which we have before spoken. 

 Heat will dissipate this, and some of the roots which are deadly 

 poisonous when raw, it is said may be eaten with impunity when 

 cooked. The roots of some of these plants resemble that of the horse- 

 radish, and in winter, when the leaves are gone, may bo dug up in 

 mistake for it. Fatal consequences have in some cases ensued from 

 such a mistake. Many of the f'mliellifenr are much affected in their 

 fccretions by climate aud cultivation. Thus, the deadly hemlock in 

 Kustia is an inert and eatable plant, while the celery of our gardens, 

 if cast on the roadside, becomes an active poison. The properties of 

 all plants are more or less affected by climate and cultivation ; but it 

 is much more obvious where poisonous secretions are increased or 

 diminished, as in the hemlock, or changed, as in the case of the celery. 



(Jussieu, Diet, det Scienca Nalurella ; Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom; 

 Don ; Miller, Dictionary ; liurnett, Outline! ; Christison, Jti*penitni<>rij ; 

 liischofT, /ichrbuch drr liotanik.) 



UMBEI.LUS. [HONASIA.] 



ITMBER (Ornithology), a name of the Scopiu umbrella, Ombretta of 

 the French, a bird belonging to the family Ardeida. 



'.i is distinguished from the Storks by its compressed bill 

 whose trenchant culmen is expanded towards the base : the nostrils 

 are prolonged into a furrow which runs parallel to the culmen to the 

 end, which is slightly hooked. 



