APIACE^E OR UMBELLIFERjE. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 21. 



ASTRANTIA. 



Tube of calyx with 10 plaited warted ribs, and 5 leafy teeth. 

 Petals erect, converging, oblong-obovate, broken inwards from 

 the middle into a lobe about as long as the petal. Fruit rather 

 compressed from the back. Half fruits without vittae, with 5 

 raised plaited toothed inflated ridges, inclosing within their 

 cavity smaller fistular ridges. Perennials. Root blackish. 

 Radical leaves stalked, palmate, cauline few sessile. General 

 umbel irregular of few rays, with a variable involucre, the partial 

 regular, containing many flowers, with a many-leaved involucre. 

 Flowers white or pink, stalked, not separated by paleae, often poly- 

 gamous, the females only being fertile. 



67. A. major Linn. sp. 339. Nees and Eberm. pi. med. 

 294. handb. iii. 62. Mountainous woods and meadows all 

 over Europe. 



Radical leaves palmated ; the lobes 5, ovate-lanceolate, acute, 

 somewhat trifid, toothed, fringed with bristles. Bracts 15-20, linear- 

 lanceolate, entire, scarcely longer than the umbel. Roots acrid and 

 purgative. 



ERYNGIUM. 



Tube of the calyx rough with scales and vesicles ; teeth 5, leafy. 

 Petals erect, converging, oblong-obovate, emarginately broken 

 inwards into a lobe the length of the petal. Fruit in a transv. 

 sect, nearly taper, obovate, scaly or tuberculate, the half- 

 fruits without jugae or vittae ; the column completely united to 

 the fruit by its whole length. Herbs, usually perennial and 

 spiny. Radical and cauline leaves more or less sheathing at 

 the base. Flowers collected in roundish or oblong heads. Outer 

 bracts forming the involucre. 



68. E. campestre Linn. sp. 337. DC. prodr. iv. 88. 

 Fl. dan. t. 554. N. and E. med. pi. t. 295. handb. iii. 65. 

 Common in the dry plains of middle and southern Europe. 

 (Eryngo.) 



Radical leaves long-stalked, 3-parted, stiff, with oblong spiny- 

 toothed sessile decurrent 3-lobed segments ; cauline sessile 3-parted 

 spiny-toothed. Stem panicled. Leaflets of the involucre linear-lan- 

 ceolate, pungent, entire, much longer than the hemispherical spiny 

 heads. It sometimes varies with the lower leaves entire or nearly so. 

 33 D 



