158 THE SECOND BOOK OF BOTANY. 



all the minute details of structure, you can, at least, 

 tell whether the fruit of the plant is like that of the 

 cow-parsnip or not. 



EXERCISE LIU. 

 Classification of Umbel-bearing Plants* 



If you verified the observations made in Ex. LIL, 

 you will understand the following description of the 

 order Umbelliferse : 



CALYX, superior ; LIMB, obsolete, or entire, or a five- 

 toothed border. PETALS, five, mostly with the point 

 inflexed, and, along with the five STAMENS, inserted 

 on the outside of a fleshy, epigynous disk at the base 

 of the two styles. FRUIT, consisting of two carpels, 

 called mericarps, cohering by their faces, the commis- 

 sure separating when ripe, and suspended from the 

 summit by a prolongation of the receptacle, called a 

 carpophore-; each carpel is marked by five primary 

 ribs, and a variable number of intermediate or sec- 

 ondary ones, between which are found oil-tubes, called 

 wttcs, filled with aromatic oil. SEEDS, solitary, ana- 

 tropous, with minute embryo in horny albumen. 



HERBACEOUS plants, with hollow, furrowed stems. 

 LEAVES, alternate, mostly compound, usually sheath- 

 ing at the base (Fig. 313). FLOWERS, in umbels, usu- 

 ally compound, often with involucre and involucels 

 (Fig. 314). 



Some of the plants of this family are innocent 

 and aromatic, others very poisonous. 



