134 



DE CANDOLLE'S SYSTEM. 



83. Apiacea or Umbellifera. Herbaceous plants with 

 fistular stems. Flowers in umbels. Calyx entire or 5- 

 toothed. Petals 5, usually inflexed at the point. Stamens 

 5, alternate with the petals. Ovary 2-celled. Styles 2, di- 

 verging ; disk double, epigynous. Fruit consisting of 2 car- 

 pels, or mericarps, separable from a common axis. Seed 

 solitary, pendulous. Embryo minute, at the base of horny 

 albumen. 



USES. The Carrot, Parsnip, Parsley, Fennel, Skirret, and 

 others, are eatable. Celery is poisonous when wild, bland if 

 cultivated. Many species are dangerous poisons, as (Enanthe 

 crocata, Cicuta virosa, Conium maculatum, .ZEthusa Cyna- 

 pium ; others have aromatic carminative fruits, as Caraway, 

 Dill, Coriander, Anise. Assaftetida, Ammoniacum, Opopa- 

 nax, foetid gum resins, exude from certain Oriental species. 



TYPICAL GENERA. Pastinaca, Carum, Petroselinum, 

 Daucus. 



Athamanta cervarisefolia. 1. A separate flower, with hairy petals. 2. A petal 

 by itself. 3. A ripe fruit with the two carpels or mericarps separating from the 

 double carpopod or axis. 4. A seed deprived of its integuments, and divided ver- 

 tically, so as to show the position of the embryo. 



The genera of this large and difficult order being charac- 

 terized very much by peculiarities in their fruit, the following 

 cut is intended to explain the principal terms employed in 

 speaking of them. 



