394 Fine species of Cowparsnep. 



Art. IV. Notice of a fine and showy species of CoiDparsyiep. 

 (Herac/eum Wilhelmsii.) By John Lewis Russell, Prof. 

 Bot. and Veg. Physiol. Mass. Hort. Soc, &c., &c. 



In 1844, Professor Fischer, of the Imperial Botanic Garden 

 at St. Petersburg, forwarded to the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society a collection of seeds, out of which I was so for- 

 tunate as to raise the interesting subject of this article. The 

 seeds were sown in April of that year, but the plants did not 

 make their appearance until the following Spring. In June, 

 1846, two surviving plants, out of the only th?'ee which vege- 

 tated, produced flowers ; and for the successive seasons have 

 rendered themselves eminently conspicuous for magnitude of 

 dimensions, as well as for elegance of style in inflorescence. 



Any one who is familiar with dark, shady, and rich woods 

 on rocky soils in this vicinity, must have frequently noticed, 

 in the month of June, a tall plant, with coarse, downy foli- 

 age, commonly known as cowparsnep, and incorrectly called 

 by some, "master wort." Passing through Harbiony Grove, 

 in which the cemetery grounds of Salem, Massachusetts, are 

 located, early in that month, my attention was arrested by a 

 fine natural groupe of these cowparsneps, covering the shelv- 

 ing sides of a slope, and giving to the spot the air of some 

 exotic culture. The peculiar beauty which this otherwise 

 coarse plant threw around the scene, suggested to me that 

 some of its foreign co-species might, perhaps, be worthy of 

 cultivation, as well adapted to cover such grounds which 

 are often filled with unseemly briars. I wished that I could 

 have seen, at the time, the Siberian species, which, of the 

 foreig-ti species, is the only one known to me, and which, as 

 an object of curiosity, I shall attempt to describe. 



Herad^um Wilhelmsii {fide Fischer,) is a very showy 

 plant, growing to the average height of about five feet, with 

 large umbels of numerous snowy white, rather small, flow- 

 ers, and with enormous leaves. Of these latter, I have speci- 

 mens before me, cut from the two plants above-mentioned, 

 which have been growing in a rich, stony soil, on the edge 

 of a peat meadow, and under no especial cultivation. One 

 of these leaves measures, from the base of the petiole to the 



