PER 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PER 



557 



with three distinct streak i. Observe. The peduncle of the 

 primary umbel sometimes throws out opposite lateral flower- 

 stalks. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Fruit oval, plane-com- 

 pressed, with three streaks on each side. All the plants of 

 this genus have roots which will continue several years ; these 

 have thick strong fibres which run deep in the ground, and 

 divide into many smaller, spreading to a considerable distance 

 every way : the stalks are annual, and decay soon after they 

 have perfected their seeds. As these plants spread very widely, 

 so they should have each four or five feet room; and ought 

 not to stand near to other plants, which their roots will 

 utterly deprive of nourishment. They are all propagated by 

 seeds, which should be sown in the autumn; for if they are 

 kept out of the ground until the spring, they frequently fail, 

 and those which succeed remain a year in the ground, so 

 that much time is lost. The seeds may be sown in drills, 

 which render it easier to keep the ground clean : these drills 

 must be at least a foot apart, and the seeds scattered two or 

 three inches asunder. When the plants come up, they must 

 be kept clean from weeds ; and where they are too close to- 

 gether, they should be thinned, to allow them room to grow, 

 for they will not be strong enough to remove till they have 

 had two years' growth ; then in the autumn, as soon as their 

 leaves decay, the roots should be taken up with great care, 

 so as not to cut or injure the tap or downright root, and 

 then planted in the places where they are designed to remain, 

 for after this transplanting they should not be removed. They 

 succeed best in a soft, gentle, loamy soil, not too wet; and 



are very rarely injured by the hardest frost. The species 



are, " 



1. Ferula Communis; Common Fennel-Giant. Leaflets 

 linear, very long, simple. This, if planted in a good soil, 

 will grow to a great height, nnd divide into many branches. 

 The lower leaves spread more than two feet every way, and 

 branch out into many divisions, which are again subdivided 

 into many smaller ; they are of a lucid green, and spread 

 near the ground. From the centre of the plant comes out 

 the flower-stem, which, when the plants are strong will be 

 nearly as large as a common broom-stick, and ten or twelve 

 feet high, with many joints ; there issues from it, when cut, 

 a fetid yellowish liquor, which will concrete on the surface 

 of the wound. This stem is terminated by large umbels of 

 yellow flowers, which come out at the end of June, or the 

 beginning of July. The seeds ripen in September, and the 

 stalk decays soon after. The stalk is filled with a light pith, 

 which when dry easily takes fire : tliis pith the Sicilians use 

 for tinder ; and hence arose the fable of Prometheus. The 

 leaves of this plant decay soon after the seeds are formed ; 

 but the roots continue several years, especially in a dry soil, 

 and annually produce flowers and seeds. Native of Italy, the 

 south of France, Sicily, and Greece. In Apulia, where it 

 abounds, it is grateful to the buffaloes, which form the prin- 

 cipal wealth of the fanners. When it arrives to a consider- 

 able size, they use it to make stools and bee-hives. All the 

 parts of this plant have a very strong smell, and abound with 

 a milky juice, which is acrid to the taste, and concretes into 

 a gummy substance, resembling galbanum or assafoetida, 

 which are produced by two oilu-r plants of the same kind. 



' It is not," says Meyrick, " much regarded in medicine, but 

 its smell and taste indicate that it possesses considerable vir- 

 tues, which, from its affinity with the abovementioned anti- 

 nodir and nervous drugs, I am led to conclude are of a 

 similar nature." 



2. Ferula Glauca ; Glaucous Fennel-Giant. Leaves su- 

 cdiniiouiid; leaflets lanceolate-linear, flat; stem from 



to (iHir feet high, terminated by an umbel of yellow 

 vol.. i. 47 



flowers, appearing in July, and succeeded by oval compressed 

 seeds, ripening in autumn. Native of Spain, Italy, and 

 Sicily. 



3. Ferula Tingitana; Tangier Fennel-Giant. Leaflets 

 laciniate, the litrle jags three-toothed, unequal, brilliant ; 

 leaves large, spreading near the root, of a very lucid green, 

 divided and subdivided into many parts. The leaflets are 

 much broader than in the other sorts, and divided at the end 

 into three unequal segments ; the stems are strong, eight or 

 ten feet high, terminated by large umbels of yellow flowers ; 

 and the fruit lenticular-bracted, calicled, of a dirty bay 

 colour. Native of Spain and Barbary. 



4. Ferula Ferulago ; Broad-leaved Fennel-Giant. Leaves 

 pinnatifid ; pinuas linear, flat, trifid. Height seven or eight 

 feet. The umbels are large, and the flowers yellow. Native 

 of Sicily. 



5. Ferula Orientalis ; Narrow-leaved Fennel-Giant. Pin- 

 nas of the leaves naked at the base; leaflets bristle-form. 

 This is much humbler in its growth than any of the pre- 

 ceding species, the stalks seldom rising much more than 

 three feet high. The lower leaves branch into many divi- 

 sions, with fine bristle-shaped leaflets. The umbel of 

 flowers, and the seeds, are small. Found by Tournefort in 

 the Levant. 



6. Ferula Meoides ; Spignel-leaved Fennel-Giant. Pinnas 

 of the leaves appendicled on each side; leaflets bristle-form. 

 This has very branching leaves, with angular channelled foot- 

 stalks. At every joint are two opposite branches ; those 

 towards the bottom are nine or ten inches long, and the others 

 diminish gradually to the top : these side-branches send out 

 smaller ones at each joint in the same manner, having very 

 fine leaves on them, like those of Spignel or Meum, standing 



.quite round in shape of whorls. The flower-stalks are three 

 feet high, having a pretty large umbel of yellow flowers at 

 the top : these are succeeded by oval flat seeds, which ripen 

 in the autumn. Native of the Levant. 



7. Ferula Nodiflora; Knotted Fennel-Giant. Leaflets 

 appendicled ; umbels sessile. This plant is about three feet 

 high ; involucres very short, and reflex ; rays of the universal 

 umbel to fourteen, of the umbellule to twelve ; petals yellow. 

 Native of Istria, Austria, and Carniola. 



8. Ferula Canadensis. Lucid. See Angelica Lvcida ; 

 from which, however, the specimen in Gronovius's Herba- 

 rium, afterwards in the possession of the late Sir Joseph 

 Banks, is very different. 



0. Ferula Assafoetida; Assa-fcetida. Leaves alternately 

 sinuate obtuse. The Assa-foetida, as described by Dr. Hope, 

 is an umbelled plant, three feet high, upright, branching, 

 glaucous, with a yellow flower ; root perennial ; root-leavtis 

 six, procumbent, thrce-lobed, ovate, many times pinnate; 

 leaflets gashed, subacute, subdecurrent ; common petiole 

 flat above, with a raised line running longitudinally through 

 the middle of it; stem two feet high, roundish', annual, 

 slightly streaked, having only one pair of imperfect leaves 

 about the middle. The branches are naked, and spreading; 

 the three lower ones alternate, and supported by the concave 

 membranaceous petiole of the imperfect leaf; the four middle 

 ones are in whorls, the uppermost from the top of the stem, 

 eight in number, the inner ones erect ; all these support a 

 compound sessile terminating umbel, besides from three to 

 six branchlets placed on the outside, bearing the compound 

 umbels : in this manner the lower branches support five, sel- 

 dom six branchlets. the middle ones three or four, the upper 

 ones one or two. The universal umbel has from twenty to 

 thirty rays ; the partial from ten to twenty, with subsessile 

 florets. There is no involucre, either general or partial 

 7C 



