APIACE^E OR UMBELLIFER;E. 



PEUCEDANUM. 



Calyx a 5-toothed margin. Petals obovate, contracted into 

 an inflexed segment, emarginate or nearly entire. Fruit flat- 

 tened at the back, surrounded by a dilated flat border. Half- 

 fruits with equi-distant ridges ; the 3 dorsal filiform, the lateral 

 more obsolete, next the dilated border, or lost in it. Vittae 

 single in the channels, or in the lateral ones If to 2 ; usually 2 

 on the commissure. Perennials generally smooth. Leaves 

 pinnated, more or less compound. Umbels compound, ter- 

 minal. Involucre variable ; involucels many -leaved. Flowers 

 white, yellow, or yellowish-green. 



104. P. officinale Linn. sp. 353. DC.prodr. iv. 177. Eng. 

 Bot. t. 1767. N. and E. handb. iii. 39. Meadows and shady 

 places throughout Europe. (Sulphur wort, Hog's fennel.) 



Herb smooth, 3 or 4 feet high, with a resinous juice, and a strong 

 sulphureous smell. Leaves 4 or even 5 times ternate with linear- 

 lanceolate acuminate flaccid segments. Umbels sometimes slightly pro- 

 liferous ; the general with about 20 rays and an involucre of 3 decidu- 

 ous setaceous bracts; the partial extremely unequal, many of the flowers 

 abortive, and an involucre of many permanent setaceous bracts. Fruit 

 2f lines long, oblong, emarginate at each end, pale light brown, the vittae 

 deep chocolate colour, the primary ridges much depressed and paler, the 

 lateral resembling deep furrows between them and the dilated margin. 

 Commissure light fawn colour, with two crimson vitta3 very conspicuous 

 upon it. Juice of the root inspissated in the sun, or before a fire, is 

 reputed antispasmodic and diuretic. 



105. P. Oreoselinum Monch. meth. 82. DC. prodr. iv. 180. 

 Nees and Eberm. pi. med. t. 291. handb. iii. 41. Athamanta 

 Oreoselinum Linn. sp. pi. 352. Jacq.fl. austr. 68. Open 

 hills of the middle of Europe and the Caucasus. 



Stem taper striated. Leaves tripinnate with the petioles broken 

 back ; segments remote, ovate, cut, pinnatifid, divaricating, shining, 

 nearly pointless. Fruit roundish-oval. The leaves and stem (Herba 

 Oreoselini Officin.) are bitter and aromatic, as is the fruit but in a 

 higher degree. They were used as powerful stimulants of the intestinal 

 canal, and are still esteemed in some countries. 



106. P. montanum Koch. umb. 94. DC.prodr. iv. 180. N. and 

 E. handb. iii. 40. Selinum palustre Linn. sp. 350. Eng. Bot. 

 t. 229. Smith Eng.fl. ii. 98. Marshes and boggy meadows in 

 the north and middle of Europe. 



Root tapering, simple, with many long fibres. Stem erect, 4 or 5 

 feet high, hollow, deeply furrowed, not hairy, branched and corymbose 

 in the upper part, bright purple at the base. Leaves about 5 or 6 on the 

 stem, alternate, remote, ternate with bipinnate divisions ; leaflets 

 opposite, deeply pinnatifid, dark green, smooth, their segments linear- 

 lanceolate, never quite linear, acute, entire or trifid ; petioles striated, 

 smooth, dilated and sheathing at the base, with a reddish membranous 

 margin. Umbels large, horizontal, of numerous, angular, general and 

 partial rays. General bracts several, lanceolate, pointed, dependent, 



48 



