CORIANDEK. 217 



Description. — The root is annual, tapering, slender, some- 

 what branched, whitish, and furnished with a few fibres. The 

 stems are erect, branched, leafy, cylindrical^ striated, rather 

 glaucous, and about two feet in height. The lower leaves are 

 bipinnate, with pinnatifid, broad, wedge-shaped, toothed seg- 

 ments ; the upper tripartite, with narrow, linear, acute seg- 

 ments. The flowers are disposed in terminal umbels of from 

 five to eight rays, which in general have no involucre at the 

 base. The umbellules are more numerous, and are commonly 

 furnished with an involucre of three linear-lanceolate leaves, 

 placed laterally. The calyx consists of five unequal acute 

 teeth. The petals are five, white or tinged with purple, obcor- 

 date, and inflexed at the point ; the innermost nearly equal ; 

 the outer large, radiant, and bifid. The five stamens have 

 thread-shaped filaments, and roundish yellow anthers. The 

 germen is inferior, globose, supporting two, short, spreading 

 styles, terminated by simple obtuse stigmas. The fruit consists 

 of two hemispherical carpels, each furnished with a projecting 

 margin on its inner and flat side, which combines with the op- 

 posite one, thus forming a complete globe, which at maturity is 

 traversed by ten obscure ridges. The seed is concave in front, 

 and covered with a loose membrane. Plate 13, fig. 4, {a) lower 

 leaf; (b) floret of the circumference of the umbel ; (c) floret of 

 the centre ; (rf) fruit. 



The native country of the Coriander has not been correctly 

 ascertained; in all probability it came originally from the 

 East, whence it migrated into Italy and Greece, and having 

 been cultivated in England for medicinal and culinary pur- 

 poses, has escaped into fields and waste places. It has 

 long been cultivated in Essex and about Ipswich for the sake 

 of its seeds. It flowers in June, and the seeds are fully ripe in 

 August. 



Several writers have imagined that this is the xopiov of Dios- 

 corides, the Koptavvov of Theophrastus, and the Coriandrum of 

 Pliny, but their identity is not fully established. The generic 

 name Coriandrum is derived from y.opig, a bug, in allusion to the 

 fetid smell of the bruised foliage. 



Qualities and general Uses. — Although the leaves in their 

 recent state have a strong disagreeable smell, yet when dried 



R 



