THE POPULAB EDUCATOR. 



War declared against Spain . 1654 

 Defeat of Perm and Venables 



at Hispaniola, or Hayti . 1654 

 Capture of Jamaica . . . 1655 

 Cromwell refuses the Crown . 1657 

 Destruction of the Spanish 

 Fleet at Santa Cruz by 

 Blake. . . . April 20, 1657 

 Capture of Dunkirk . June, 1658 

 Death of Blake . August 27, 1658 

 Cromwell dies at Whitehall 



Septembers, 1658 



EICHAED CROMWELL, LORD 



PROTECTOR. 



Born at Huntingdon . . . 1625 

 Became Lord Protector, 



LESSONS IN BOTANY. XIV. 



THE 



SECTION XXV. UMBELLIFEE^E, OR APIACE^I: 

 UMBELLIFEROUS, OR PARSLEY TRIBE. 



PERHAPS there does not exist a natural family of vegetables 

 more distinctly marked than this. Their general aspect alone, 

 without going into anatomical minutise of structure, is almost 

 sufficient to distinguish them; never- 

 theless, we will indicate the botanical 

 characteristics of this great natural 

 order. 



Characteristics : Calyx adherent to 

 the ovary ; petals, five, inserted upon 

 anepigynous disc; aestivation valvular, 

 involute ; stamens, five, alternate with 

 the petals; ovary, inferior, two-celled 

 nniovular ; ovule, pendent, reflexed ; 

 styles, two ; carpels separating at the 

 base ; seed, dicotyledonous ; leaves, 

 alternate, simple, often divided, petio- 

 late, in an involucre. The word epi- 

 gynous, the only one in the preceding 

 description of the characters of the 

 Umbelliferce that we have not met with 

 before, means " growing on the summit 

 of the ovary," from the Greek eirt 

 (ep'-i), upon, and yvvrt (gu'-ne), a 

 woman. 



Such are the precise botanical cha- 

 racteristics by which the umbelliferoe, 

 or umbrella-bearers, as we may call them, 

 are known; but, we repeat, their aspect 

 is almost enough to distinguish them 

 from other plants ; not but that a few 

 plants of other orders bear umbels, 

 and many seem to bear umbels with- 

 out doing so ; but, generally speaking, 

 the aspect of an umbelliferous plant is 

 sufficient to characterise it. 



Taking for our example a specimen 

 of Fool's Parsley (JEthusa Cynapium, 

 Fig. 138), we shall find the floral part 

 to consist of a compound umbel ; that 

 is to say, little umbels attached to the 



stems which constitute large ones (Vol. I., page 217, Fig; 66). 

 We shall find, both in the small and large umbels, that the 

 petioles, or flower-stalks, shoot forth from points exactly opposite 

 each other, otherwise the structure would not be an umbel. Take, 

 for example, the elder-tree. A general examination of its flower 

 would lead one to suppose that the elder was an umbelliferous 

 plant ; but, on examining it more attentively, the petioles do not 

 branch off at a point exactly opposite each other ; hence the in- 

 florescence of the elder-tree is not that of an umbel, but of a 

 cyme. Nevertheless, in the geraniums, and some other plants, 

 the inflorescence is really umbelliferous ; hence the existence of 

 an umbel is not quite sufficient for the botanist to rely upon in 

 the discrimination of a plant belonging to the natural order 

 Umbelliferce. Let us, therefore, examine some of the remaining 

 characteristics enumerated at the beginning of this description. 



If we examine the flower of a parsley plant, we shall discover 

 that the calyx is almost absent. The petals, five in number, 

 spring from a narrow line or border. There are five stamens, 

 each arising from between two petals. 



As in the apple, the ovary in an umbelliferous plant is inferior 

 that is to say, it appears below the calyx and corolla, inas- 

 much, as the latter springs from above it. 



What, then, is the fruit of an umbelliferous plant ? We hear 

 frequently enough of carrot, parsley, celery, and carraway seeds, 

 but we do not hear of carrot, parsley, celery, and carraway fruits. 

 . .. Nevertheless, all these are fruits, not seeds. The real seed is 



ocp itiiji uyr o. J-OOo i_ j j j :J.T.* j_t_ > i t* i 



Deposed by the Army embedded within the structure of a surrounding mass, as we 



April 22* 1659 ' f oun( l to be the case in the apple and pear. There the sur- 

 Restoration of Charles II. j rounding mass is fleshy and easily separable ; here it is hard 



May 29, 1660 and firmly adherent ; therefore the so-called seeds of umbel. 

 Richard Cromwell dies j liferous plants are fruits of the kind which botanists denominate 

 at Hursley, Hampshire, ^ I by the term achcenium. All these fruits separate naturally when 

 July 17, 1712 r jp 6) or a( j m jt o f ready separation into two parts, and they are 

 all furrowed ; moreover, the nature and direction of these fur- 

 rows differ in each species ; of the order, consequently, they are 

 an important means for enabling the botanist to distinguish 

 umbelliferous species. The two grand peculiarities, then, of the 

 umbelliferous tribe are, first, the presence of umbels ; secondly, 

 the inferior fruit separable into two portions. Why did w 

 select a sprig of Fool's Parsley, as a specimen to illustrate the 

 tribe Umbelliferce when so many more readily obtainable plants 

 existed ? For this reason : to show 

 in what respect Fool's Parsley, which 

 is poisonous, may be distinguished 

 from the culinary parsley. 



If the reader examines each terminal 

 umbel of the Fool's Parsley, he will 

 recognise at the base of it three leaf- 

 like things, which are bracts, and 

 which, when they are arranged as we 

 find them in umbelliferous plants, con- 

 stitute each set an involucre. The 

 student will observe that in the JEthusa 

 Cynapium, or Fool's Parsley (Fig. 138), 

 these bracts all point outwards, bj 

 which characteristic sign may the 

 Fool's Parsley be distinguished not 

 only from common parsley, but from 

 all wild umbelliferous plants. 



Whilst treating of these bracts, 

 which in Umbelliferce constitute the 

 involucrum, the reader's attention may 

 as well be directed to certain modifica- 

 tions of form which bracts are capable 

 of assuming. Thus, in the oak they 

 grow together and give rise to the 

 acorn up (Fig. 87, p. 341); in the 

 pine-apple they grow together, become 

 fleshy, and constitute the part we eat ; 

 in the fir-cone they constitute the 

 scales ; in Umbelliferce, however, they 

 assume the appearance of leaves, 

 which, indeed, is their general or 

 normal aspect. With regard to the 

 physiological and chemical characteris- 

 tics of the Umbelliferce, they may be 

 stated to depend on the presence either 

 of an odorous volatile oil, or a poisonous 



matter. Everybody is aware how agreeably odorous are the 

 so-called carraway seeds ; everybody is aware of the poisonous 

 nature of the hemlock ; and the noxious character of the Fool's 

 Parsley has already passed under notice. Umbelliferous plant* 

 may, therefore, be designated in general terms as suspicious 

 plants, comprehending, however, a far greater number of in- 

 noxious than noxious species ; the latter may be generally dis- 

 covered by their agreeable, the former by their disagreeable 

 odour. 



In certain species of this natural order the innocent and the 

 noxious principles are combined. This is the case in the wild 

 celery, which in this condition is a rank plant, altogether un- 

 fitted for food. The change which ensues when celery is culti- 

 vated in gardens we are all aware of ; but the reason of that 

 change merits a few remarks. Garden celery, as the reader 

 knows, is carefully buried in the earth, not only its root, but 

 much of its stem being totally deprived of light. Under this 

 treatment, the buried portion of the plant becomes etiolated or 

 bleached; becomes, in point of fact, botanically considered, 

 diseased ; that is to say, the poisonous secretion of the plant is 

 no longer elaborated, the odorous principle alone being formed. 

 A consideration of the nature and effects of etiolation leads us 



136. BLOSSOM, LEAVES, AND FRUIT OP THE SAPUCAYA 

 TBEE (LECYTHIS OLLABIA). 



