CLASS PENTANDRIA. 



145 



1. Calyx, a, au involucrum ; the leaves at the foot of the universal umbel forir. 

 tte cjeneral involucrum ; the leaves at the foot Df the partial umbel form a partial 

 involucrum. The involucrums are pinnatifid. 



2. Corolla, b, represented as magnified ; it has five petals, injlexed, or bent in- 

 ward. 



3. Stamens five, anthers somewhat divided. 



4. Pistils two, reftexed, as seen on the seed c, where the stigmas are permanent. 



5. Pericarp, is wanting in all umbellate plants. 



6. Seed, c, is round, with its two styles at the summit ; it consists of two carpels, 

 separating from each other by their feces (commissure) into halves. 



7. Stem, d, hollow, furrowed, herbaceous, branched, pinnatifid, compound, and 

 sheathing, 



8. Leaves, e, narrow, pinnatifid. 



9. Flowers, terminal, umbelled.* 



In distinguishing the genera of umbelliferous plants, the figure, position, albumen, 

 marr/in, and angles of the seeds are much regarded. The seeds of the carrot are 

 hristlg, of the poison hemlock ribbed, of the parsnip /fa ^ The Umbelliferai arc a 

 united family ; we meet with no dlsunlonists having stamens more or less than the 

 normal number. 



191. Order Trigynia^ three pistils. — ^Tbe elder {Sanibiicus) is 

 a small sliriib which ornaments the fields during summer with 

 its clusters of delicate white flowers. From the appearance of 

 the blossom it might be regarded as umbelliferous ; the stalks 

 radiate from one common center, but are unequally subdivided; 

 this arrangement of flowers is called a cyme. The dark, rich 

 purple berries of the elder, and the peculiarity of its pithy 



of Montpelier bestowed more pains upon them than any other botanist has ever done ; but the world has, 

 as yet, been favored with only a part of his remarks. His labors met with a most ungrateful check, in 

 the unkindness and mortifying stupidity of his wife, who, in his absence from home, is recorded to 

 have destroyed his whole herbarium, scrapingoff the dried specimens for the sake of the paper on which 

 they were pasted V— Smith's Introduction to Botavi/. 



* The description of this plant is given on the authoritv of Nuttall, who calls it the American cori- 

 ander, which he found in the neighborhood of the Red JRiver. The cultivated coriander has a one- 

 ieafcd involucrum. 



describe Fi^'. 135— Circumstance'; noted in describing umbelliferous plants. — 191. Elder 



