PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. 193 



pill; commissure sulcate; reccptacular axis se- 

 rnibifid; style subulate, persistent, terminating 

 the fruit. Universal inyolucrum none.* 



Umbell compound, with 5 or more rays. General in- 

 volucrum wanting. Partial involucrum 5-leave I, entire; 

 , umbellets many-flowered; masculine florets often double 

 the number of those which are fertile. Calix obsolete. 

 Petals oblong-, emarginately inflected. Leaves biter- 

 nate, somewhat pseudo-tripinnate, margin incisely-toothed; 

 young- plants canescently pilose, at length nearly smooth. 

 Sweet and aromatic, Odor anisate; seed tasteless. 



Species. 1. U. CJaytoid, Scandix Claytoui, Mich. 

 Obs. Root perennial. Stems about a foot high, striated, 

 always more or les pubescent, but at first of a hoary white- 

 ness. Leaves only about 2 on each, stern; ternate, with 

 the subdivisions from 3 to 5-leaved; ter.innal leaflets 

 rhomboidal, acute, lateral ones more irregular and ob- 

 long, sometimes subpinnatifidly lobed, but generally in- 

 cisely toothed, dentures mostly obtuse with a small point. 

 Umbells axillary and terminal, rays about 5. Involucrum 

 wanting, or of 1 or 2 small leaves. Umbellets small, ex- 

 terior hermaphrodite flowers about 5, males about 10, 

 all pedunculate, peduncles of the male-flowers capillary; 

 involucell 5-leaved, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, soon 

 after flowering deflected. Styles filiform, as long as the 

 germ, erect and divaricate, with inconspicuous stigmas. 

 (Jerm distinctly villous towards the base. No vestige of 

 a calix. Fruit linear-lanceolate, black and shining, subu- 

 lated, but without rostrum. Seed caudate, (an inch in 

 length, including the cauda. which is about 3 lines long) 

 acutely quadrangular, without ei: her r:bs or stris; inter- 

 vals flat and even, cuticle minutely punctate, cauda, and 

 more sparingly the angles of the seed aculeately hispid. — 

 Hae. Near Philadelphia, on the shady banks of the Schuyl- 

 kill. The whole plant, excepting tlie seed which is per- 

 fectly tasteless, possesses nearly the same sweet and aro- 

 matic odor as Afi/ryhis odorata, to which it bears some 

 resemblance. — If Sisorr canadense is to be considered a 

 genuine JMyrrlds, and Scmidix pvocnmhens and S. cerefo' 

 Hum as examples of Chxrophyllum , I could not for a mo- 

 ment hesitate to separate from both these genera, the 

 Myrrhis Claytoni of Michaux, not however without a sus- 

 picion of its affinity to JSI. odorata. 

 S 



