398 THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



indehiscent. Oil-tubes, in the form of stripes, 1 or several in the 

 intervals of the ribs on the fruits, also sometimes under the ribs and 

 on both faces of the fruit, are characteristic features of the Umbel- 

 liferae. A well-marked natural family of about 1,500 species in about 

 160 genera. Some of the species are poisonous. Here belong parsley, 

 parsnip, carrot, celery, caraway, sweet cicely. Rather difficult for 

 the beginner. 



a. Fruits bristly 1. Daucus 



aa. Fruits not bristly. 

 b. The fruits winged. 



c. Wing single, surrounding the margin: flowers 



yellow 2. Pastinaca 



cc. Wing double on margin: flowers white 3. Angelica 



bb. The fruits wingless. 



C. Fruit long and slender, tapering at base: no appar- 

 ent oil-tubes: flowers white 4. Osmnrrhiza 



cc. Fruit ovate or orbicular. 



D. Plant low and delicate: blooms in earliest spring: 



stem with 1 or 2 leaves, if any 5. Erigenia 



dd. Plant tall: stems leafy. 



E. Axis not splitting in two when the carpels 



fall from it 6. Apium 



ee. Axis splitting in two when the carpels or ' 'seeds' ' 



fall. Leaf-segments filiform, flowers white.. .7. Carum 



1. DAfrCUS. Carrot. 



Annuals or biennials, bristly, slender and branching, with small white 

 flowers in compound umbels, the rays of which become inflexed in fruit: the 

 fruit oblong, ribbed and bristly. 



D. Carota, Linn. Carrot. Figs. 194, 410. Leaves pinnately decompound, 

 the ultimate segments lanceolate: outer flowers with larger petals. Europe; 

 cultivated for the root, and extensively run wild. 



2. PASTINACA. Parsnip. 



Tall, smooth biennials of strict habit and with pinnately compound 

 leaves: flowers yellow, in compound umbels with scarcely any involucres: 

 fruit oval, very thin, wing-margined. 



P. sativa, Linn. Parsnip. Flowering stem 2-4 ft. tall, grooved, hol- 

 low: leaflets ovate or oblong, sharp-toothed. Europe; cultivated for its 

 roots and also run wild. 



3. ANGELICA. 



Strong, tall, perennial weeds, with great compound leaves and large 

 umbels of small white flowers, with involucre and involucels none, or only a 

 few small bracts: fruit ovate or oval, flattened, with rather broad, marginal 

 wings: oil-tubes many. 



