May, 1903.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



97 





Founded by RICHARD A. PROCTOR. 



Vol. XXVI.] LONDON : MAY, 1903. [No. 211. 



CONTENTS. 



Familiar Britisli Wild Flowers and their Allies. III. — 

 The Umbeliiferse. By R, Llotd Peaegee, b.a. 

 {Illustrated) 

 The Palseontological Case for Evolution. By R. 



Ltdekkee 

 St. Sophia, Constantinople.— IV. By E. M. Antoniadi, 



p.R.A.s. {Illustrated) . . ... 



Modern Cosmogonies.— II. Criticisms of the Nebular 



Hypothesis. By Agnes At Clerke 



Letters : 



" Man's Place in the Universe." 



By Alfred R. "Walla I i: .. 

 By Agnes M. Cleeke 



By J. E. Gore 



By W. H. S. MoNCK 



British Ornithological Notes. Conducted by Haret F. 



WlTHEEBT, P.Z.8., M.B.O.IT 



Notes 



Notices of Books 



Books Received 



Clouds as seen from Cloud Level. By Rev. John M. 



Bacon, f.e.a.s. {Illustrated) 

 Microscopy. Conducted by M. I. Ceoss (Illustrated) ... 



Notes on Comets and Meteors. By W. F. Denning, 

 p.R.A.s. ... 



The Face of the Sky for May. By W. 

 Shackleton, P.H.A.8. ... 



Chess Column. By C. D. Looook, b.a 



107 



108 

 109 



no 



110 

 110 

 112 

 114 



114 



116 



FAIVIILIAR BRITISH WILD FLOWERS AND 

 THEIR ALLIES. 



By B. Lloyo Fraeger, b.a. 

 III.— THE UMBELLIFER.E.* 



Among the larger wild flowers which one meet.s on a 

 country rcamble, none are more familiar than the members 

 of the group which botanists call the VmhelJifi-nv, or 

 umbel-beariug plants. These plants are puzzliiiL;- to the 

 beginner on account of the strong family likeness which 

 runs through the majority. In a large number of the 

 commoner species we find the same strong erect growth, 

 hollow, branched stem, much-divided leaves triangular in 

 outline, and flattish white or pink compound umbels 

 formed of numerous small flowers. Indeed, were stem 

 and leaf the only means of discrimination, identification 

 would bediflicult; and if we had to rely on the flowers 

 alone, well nigh impossible. But the fruit of these plants, 



■ l''or tlu! use of the blocks which form Figures 2 to 6, the writer 

 is indebted to Messrs. C. Orillin & Co. They are taken from his 

 " Open -Air Studies in Botany.' 



remarkable in structure, is also much varied in form. 

 Here we have the key to their classification ; and a study 

 of the fruits of the Umbeliiferse will not only enable the 

 beginner to name bis plants, but -n-ill present to his view a 

 large series of interesting and lieautiful forms. Eacli 

 fruit consists of two carpels (jnericarps), often flattened, 

 adhering by their face (commissure) to a common axis (the 

 columella or carpophore), from which they ultimately 

 separate and become pendulous. Each carpel has usually 

 five longitudinal ribs, and often four lesser ribs alternating 

 with these ; and in the substance of the wall of the fruit, 

 either under the ribs or in the spaces between them, there 

 are often canals (vittse) filled with essential oil. The 

 mericarps vary in shape, in the character of the ribs, and 

 in the arrangement of the vittDe, and these variations 

 generally render identification easy. If the fruit be cut 

 across horizontally with a knife, its characters are seen to 

 the best advantage. The aeoompanyiug sketch shows 

 enlarged sections of the fruits of five familiar Umbellifers, 

 and exemplifies the variety of form and arrangement that 

 has been referred to. 



Fig. 1. — Horizontal Sections of Fruits o£ Umbelliferie. 1. Dancus 

 Carota. 2. Pimpinella magna. 3. Si/drocoti/le vulgaris, -i. Carum 

 Carui. 5. ^thusa Ci/napium. Enlarged. 



The Umhelliferx are a large order of plants, comprising 

 several thousand species. I'liey are represented in every 

 part of the world, but are especially abundant in Europe 

 and temperate Asia. The species which are reckoned as 

 native or naturalized in the British Islands number sixty- 

 nine, distributed among forty genera ; from which figures 

 it may be gathered that a quite unusual number of genera 

 — thirty, to be precise — are with us represented by a single 

 species only. Our British UmbeUiferx are all herbaceous 

 plants, but in other parts of the world shrubby species 

 occur, and others again which widely differ in general 

 appearance from the Carrot- or Parsncp-like forms which 

 we are inclined to regard as typical of the order. 



Among the BritisU Umbelliferie, some few have in- 

 florescences differing from the characteristic form, the 

 flowers being arranged in simple instead of compound 

 umbels, or in head-like groups. These plants belong to 

 the genera Jlydrocotyle (Marsh Pennywort), Saiiiciila 

 (Wood Sanicle), Asfrantia, and Enjiigium (Sea-Holly) ; 

 and it will be seen, when we come to speak of the 



