CARUM AUREUM. 135 



times pinnately 5-foliate, the very lowest being simple and 

 cordate. The student will compare the leaflets with those 

 of Cicely, and note their form of outline, base, apex, and 

 margin. The petioles are sheathing and stem-clasping at 

 the base, as in that plant. 



THE FLOWER REGION. The umbels are axillary and ter- 

 minal. * Are they simple or compound ? Do you find any 

 involucre and involucels ? Of what description ? The 

 flowers are 5-parted. Here also the calyx consists of a tube 

 adhering to the ovary, with the limb or teeth obsolete. Each 

 of the 5 yellow petals has its slender point inflexed, with the 

 5 stamens in like manner inflected. The ovary is inferior- 

 placed below the flower and crowned by it, in consequence of 

 being immersed in and adherent to the tubular calyx. The 

 2 styles are slender, longer than the ovary, and deciduous, 

 for they are not seen on the full-grown fruit. 



The Fmiit is a cremocarp as in Osmorhiza, but with sev- 

 eral remarkable differences. It is oval inclined to oblong, 

 flattened on the sides. When the carpels separate, they show 

 the forked carpophore between them. Each carpel has 5 con- 

 spicuous, equal, wavy ribs, 2 of which are marginal, i. e., on 

 the border of the face or commissure. In each interval be- 

 tween the ribs is an oil tube an oblong cell containing a 

 fragrant oil. Botanists call these oil-tubes vittce. None are 

 found in the fruits of Osmorhiza. 



* Plants in which the inflorescence is arranged in a cyme, corymb, &c., may be 

 termed the " Social Flowers." Small flowers thus packed closely together are neces- 

 sarily more attractive to insects than if they were scattered promiscuously over the 

 plant. Besides, these groups of flowers are generally placed where they are not hid- 

 den by the leaves. So that one can but feel that this floral arrangement is not an 

 accident, but designed for a purpose. Self-fertilization is guarded against in these 

 masses of small flowers by the stamens ripening before the pistils. The former shed 

 their pollen and wither before the latter have developed sufficiently to receive the 

 pollen. Sir John Lubbock remarks that the honey in the flowers of this order is 

 inaccessible to butterflies, whose probosces are fitted for deep-throated flowers; but 

 it is easily reached by other insects. 



