250 DICOTYLEDONS. UMBELLIFER^E. Hydrocotyle. 



Shrubs generally parasitical on trees. Leaves opposite or some- 

 times alternate, without stipules. Flowers terminal or axillary, 

 solitary or in bunches. Juss. 



1. VISCUM. 



Monoecious or dioecious. Cal. with the margin entire or a little 

 prominent. Petals 4, short, united at the base. Barren fi. 

 Anth. 4, sessile, adnate with the petals. Fertile fl. Ovary 

 crowned with the margin of the cal. Stigma 1 . Berry (Drupe) 

 globose, 1 -seeded. 



1 . V. album, leaves lanceolate obtuse, stems dichotomous, heads 

 of flowers axillary, p. 288. On trees, rare. 



ORDER XXXVIII. UMBELLIFEILE. Juss. 



Cal. adherent with the ovaries, 5-toothed ; teeth generally decidu- 

 ous, sometimes persistent. Cor. of 5 petals, bifid, usually ob- 

 cordate, with an elongation beyond the sinus of the lobes, often 

 radiating. Stam. 5, alternate with the petals, inserted into a 

 thick epigynous disk, sometimes abortive. Styles 2. Stigmas 

 capitate. Caryopsides 2% attached to a central stalked recepta- 

 cle, separating when ripe. Seedsolitary, pendulous. Embryo 

 minute, in the base of a corneous albumen. 



Herls. Leaves alternate, generally compound and embracing 

 the stem with their stalk. Flowers in umbels. 



A. Umlels with a partial and universal involucre. 



1. ERYNGIUM. 

 Flowers sessile, capitate. Receptacle conical, chaffy. Fruit 



bristly. 



1 . E. maritimum, radical leaves rounded plaited spinous, scales 

 of the receptacle 3-cleft. p. 87. Sea-coast. 



2. HYDROCOTYLE. 

 Flowers in a simple umbel or capitate. Cal. 0. Petals ovate, 



* Each fruit has five prominent ribs (costaf), with as many sunken inter- 

 vals (valleculce) between them. Under the coat of the fruit appear bands 

 (vittfB') which are ducts or reservoirs traversing the intervals longitudinally, 

 and filled with the resinous or oily juices from which the aromatic smell of 

 the fruit is derived. Where the fruit adheres to the receptacle is the com- 

 missure (commissura or rapha~), which is flat or excavated, occasioned by the 

 cohesion and mutual pressure of the two caryopsides, and generally traversed 

 by bands. Upon modifications of these parts the generic characters of Hoff- 

 mann and Sprengel are founded, which have recently been applied to all the 

 genera in a masterly manner by the latter author in the 6th vol. of Romer 

 and Schultes Species Plantarum. 



