THE PARSLEY FAMILY. 207 



chiefly over the temperate regions of the globe. They are 

 remarkable for their widely different active properties, a 

 considerable number being edible, a large proportion pleas- 

 antly (or unpleasantly) aromatic, and a comparatively small 

 number poisonous. It is a curious fact that while very 

 largely dependent upon insects for fertilization, the flowers 

 of umbellifers attract, as a rule, a very common lot of visit- 

 ors such as " short-lipped flies, beetles, and other short- 

 lipped insects in immense variety." l Numbers, rather 

 than quality, has become the rule, and while the family 

 has held its own, and has even established a claim to be 

 considered one of the dominant natural orders, it is one 

 of the least attractive. 



The best preparation for the further study of this rather 

 difficult family will be made by getting together a collec- 

 tion of ripe fruits, especially those occurring in commerce, 

 and becoming thoroughly familiar with their anatomical 

 structure. 



Useful directions for collecting and other needed sug- 

 gestions are given by Coulter and Rose, in their Revision 

 of North American Umbelliferce? 



SPECIAL STUDIES. 



I. Morphology of the "tuber" of Erigenia bulbosa. 



A critical botanist writes : " Is it really a stem ? 

 Who ever examined it? It appears to me to be 

 half hypocotyl, and the other half a root." 

 II. The terminal, colored flower of Daucus Carota. 



1 Mtiller, Fertilization of Flowers, p. 287. 



2 Separate monograph. Issued by the Herbarium of Wabash College, 

 December, 1888. 



