FENNEL 



489 



FCENICULUM. Fennel. The fruit of Fcenieulum vulgare, and 

 of the var. dulce (Fam. Umbelliferae), perennial herbs indigenous to 

 the Mediterranean region of Europe and Asia, and cultivated in 

 France, Galicia, Germany, Roumania, Russia, India, and Japan. 

 The fruit is collected when ripe and dried. That obtained from 

 plants cultivated in Germany (Saxony and Thuringia), Galicia and 

 Russia is preferred. 



Description. Mericarps usually separated; cremocarp oblong or 

 nearly cylindrical, straight, 4.5 to 8 mm. in length, 2 to 3 mm. in 

 diameter, externally yellowish-green, summit with a somewhat 

 depressed disk, and a conical stylopodium about 0.5 mm. in length, 

 each mericarp with five prominent, yellowish, slightly winged primary 

 ribs, internally somewhat greenish-brown, with a slender carpophore 



FIG. 210. Coriander: A, cremocarp showing remains of two stigmas (a), otylo- 

 podia (thickened persistent styles) (6), calyx teeth (c), straight primary ribs 

 (d) and wavy, somewhat obscure, secondary ribs (e). B, transverse section 

 of the cremocarp showing primary ribs (a), secondary ribs (d), vittse (c) on 

 commissural side, and seed (6). After Bastin. 



attached to each mericarp, the latter unequally 5-angled in cross- 

 section, the commissural surface slightly grooved and with two 

 vittse, dorsal surface with a single vitta between each of the primary 

 ribs; there may be, however, as many as 8 vittse in each mericarp; 

 seed irregularly plano-convex, with a small embryo at the upper 

 end of the reserve layer; pedicel 3 to 10 mm. in length; odor and 

 taste aromatic. 



Inner Structure. (Fig. 211.) An epidermal layer Of colorless 

 cells which in surface view are rectangular or polygonal; a mesocarp 

 consisting of several layers of thin-walled, isodiametric cells, several 

 layers of thick-walled cells of a brownish color and inside of which 



