PLANTS GROWING IN MOI^T SOIL, ,. 



them are extremely poisonous. This is true of thV water-hem- 

 lock illustrated in Plate VI. Again, we cannot avoid all of them 

 on this account, as among them they number the vegetables, 

 celery, carrots, parsnips and parsley. They are readily recog- 

 nised as a genus by their umbels and umbellets of minute 

 flowers, compound leaves, and generally hollow stems. In size 

 and colour they are very variable. 



A powerful microscope and a lifetime of patience is necessary 

 to study them in the detail of their individual parts, and many 

 of the species can only then be recognised by the difference in 

 their fruit ; but they can be broadly known according to locality. 

 Insects are necessary to them, as self-fertilization is prevented 

 by the stigma developing some time before the stamens. 



HOCK BISHOP-WEED. 



Ptilimnium capillaceiim. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Parsley. White, Scentless. Middle states. June-October. 



Flowers : very small ; clustered in compound umbels with finely divided 

 bracts underneath. Leaves: compound; the divisions fine and threadlike. 

 Stem : varying greatly in height; branching; smooth. 



To thrive well this plant is one that requires the constant 

 washing of its roots with water. We find it by running streams, 

 in wet meadows, and sometimes in brackish marshes. The 

 flowers are fluffy and pretty ; but that the bishops would ever 

 agree to the supposed likeness between the bracts and their 

 caps is greatly to be doubted. 



SWEET WHITE VIOLET. {Plate CXXXV.) 



Vtdla bldnda. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Violet. White ; the lower petals Delicately Northward from May. 



veined with purple. fragrant. the Alleghanies. 



Flowers : small ; terminal ; solitary ; growing on a scape. Calyx : five-eared 

 at the base. Corolla : of five unequal beardless petals, one being spurred at 

 the base. Stamens : five ; short; united about the pistil. Pistil: one; short. 

 Leaves ; from the root on petioles ; reniform. Stem : erect ; not leafy. 



