Ferula. UMBELLIFEK^E. 271 



23. HERACLEUM, Linn. Cow PARSNIP. 



Calyx-teeth small or obsolete. Disk undulate; stylopodium conical. Fruit 

 strongly flattened, orbicular or elliptical, the broad wings coherent till maturity ; 

 dorsal ribs filiform or obscure ; oil-tubes obclavate, extending downward from the 

 apex rarely to the base, solitary in the intervals, 2 on the commissure. Seed flat 

 and thin. Perennials or biennials, mostly stout and pubescent ; leaves ample, 

 lobed or compound ; umbels many-rayed ; involucre usually few-leaved, caducous ; 

 involucels many-leaved ; flowers white. 



About 50 species are found in the north temperate zone of the Old World, a single one extend- 

 ing to America and ranging through much of British America and the United States. 



1. H. lanatum, Michx. Very stout, 4 to 8 feet high, pubescent : petioles 

 greatly dilated; leaves ternate; the divisions petiolulate, round-cordate, 4 to 10 inches 

 broad, unequally lobed ; lobes acuminate, toothed : rays 3 to 6 inches long: flowers 

 large, the outer petals often dilated : fruit broadly obovate, 4 to 6 lines long, slightly 

 pubescent. 



Wet soils in the mountains, from Monterey northward, and in the Sierra Nevada at a height 

 of 6,000 to 8,000 feet. 



24. FERULA, Linn. 



Calyx-teeth obsolete. Disk small and stylopodium depressed. Fruit oblong- 

 elliptical or nearly orbicular, strongly compressed dorsally, the corky marginal wings 

 (in American species) as thick as the seed, coherent till maturity ; the dorsal ribs 

 filiform ; oil-tubes very numerous, obscure, or sometimes wanting. Seed flattened. 

 Carpophore bifid. Smooth, nearly acaulescent perennials, with thick fusiform 

 roots ; leaves pinnately decompound ; flowers yellow, in many-rayed umbels. 



Nuttall's genus Lcpfotcenia, of the western coast, kept distinct by Bentham & Hooker, is re- 

 ferred by Dr. Gray to this large Old World genus. Polytcenia, of the Eastern States, is separated 

 only by its manifest calyx-teeth and more acuminate and impressed petals. In addition to the 

 following western species a fourth is found in S. Utah and New Mexico, F. NEWBERRYI (Peuce- 

 danum Xcii:bcrryi, Watson, in Am. Naturalist, vii. 301;, of dwarfer habit, strictly acaulescent, 

 and with less divided leaves. 



* Leaves finely divided. 



1. F. dissoluta, Watson. A stout coarse plant, the short stems numerous from 

 a very thick root, leafy at base : leaves broad, ternate and thrice pinnate, the ovate 

 or oblong segments a half to an inch long, pinnatifidly laciniate-lobed and toothed, 

 puberulent on the veins beneath : peduncles stout, 1 or 2 feet long ; rays 2 to 5 

 inches long, involucrate with a few linear entire or lobed bracts ; involucels of 

 several linear bractlets : flowers yellow or purplish, numerous : fruit 8 or 9 lines 

 long, 3 1 broad, almost sessile, the thickened margin of a line broad ; dorsal ribs 

 filiform ; oil-tubes very obscure and much interrupted, wanting on the commisstire. 



Leptot^nia dissecta, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 630. Cynapium (?) Bigelovii, 

 Torrey, Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 94. Ferula dissecta, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 348, 

 not Ledebour. 



Valleys and hillsides, flowering in early spring, from Mendocino County north to Puget Sound ; 

 Klamath Lake (Fremont) ; Murphy's Camp, Bigelow. A specimen from Borax Lake (Torrey), 

 having broad regularly elliptical fruit only 5 lines long, is no otherwise different. 



2. F. multifida, Gray, 1. c. Like the last, but with more finely divided leaves, 

 the umbels without involucre, flowers less densely crowded, and the pedicels of the 

 fruit 2 to 12 lines long. Watson, Bot. King Exp. 127. Leptotaenia multifida, 

 Nutt. 1. c. 



On the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada from Carson City northward to Oregon, and east to 

 Utah. The root is often very large. 



