No. 526 



All the Flowers on Slender Stalklets Which 

 Arise at the Same Point and Produce a Flower 

 Cluster Known as an Umbel. See Figs. 527-555. 



(Nos. 527-5550 

 The members of the Carrot Family are the best known 

 of all the plants that have their flowers arranged in umbels, 

 as shown in Figs. 527-555. But this characteristic is found 

 also in the related Ginseng Family, and in a few other plants 

 of widely different affinities. Sometimes the umbel is a 

 single, and relatively simple affair, as in Fig. 536, or again 

 it may be a greatly branched flower cluster. But however 

 arranged, the ultimate unit of each cluster is always of sep- 

 arate flowers, or individual stalklets which arise at the same 

 point. Of the two dozen, or so species here considered, about 

 20 are in the Carrot or Ginseng Families, the balance in the 

 Spurge Family, and one, the Shooting Staf (No. 527) is 

 in the Primrose Family. We may separate them all thus : 



Leaves all compound (except no. 539) no. 531 



Leaves not compound 



Leaves basal ; plant without milky juice . . Shooting Star no. 527 

 Leaves not basal, scattered along the stem; juice milky 



Some of the leaves white-margined 



Snow-on-the-Mountain no. 528 



Leaves green all over 



Leaves oblong or roundish Sun Spurge no. 529 



Leaves narrowly oblong or linear. . .Cypress Spurge no. 530 

 527. Shooting Star. Dodecatheon Mcadia. {Primulaccac.) 

 A perennial herb with basal toothless leaves and purple, or 

 pink, rarely white flowers. Leaves oval-oblong, narrowed into 

 a stalk, 4-12 in. long, and ^-3 in. wide. Flowers in a ter- 

 minal umbel, at first nodding, at length erect. Petals 5, 

 slightly united at the base. Fruit a dry pod. On moist cliflFs, 

 and open prairies. Penn. to the mountains of Georgia, and 

 westward. May. Fig. 527. See also Nos. 449, 466, 649, 691, 

 and 801, for other plants in this family. 



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