JZgopodium.] XXXV. UMBELLIFERffi. 183 



In moist woods and thickets, widely spread over Europe and Russian 

 Asia, except the extreme north. Having been much cultivated for 

 medicinal purposes, and spreading readily by its creeping rootstocks, 

 it is not always truly indigenous, although a troublesome weed in 

 gardens. In Britain it is common, but chiefly about houses and 

 gardens, and therefore, probably introduced. Fl. summer. 



X. CARUM. CARUM. 



(Including Petrosdinum.) 



Leaves dissected. Umbels compound, with general and partial invo- 

 lucres of several small bracts, or in some species without any. Petals 

 with an inflected point, entire or 2-lobed at its base, white or rarely 

 yellowish ; fruit ovoid or oblong, slightly compressed laterally without 

 visible calycinal teeth or with very small ones. Carpels narrower than 

 in Apivm, with 5 slightly prominent ribs, and single vittas under the 

 furrows ; the axis or carpophore splitting to the base when ripe. 



The genus as extended by the recent revision is a large one, chiefly 

 European and Asiatic; but with a few North American and South 

 African species. The five British species have by some botanists been 

 distributed in as many distinct genera. 



Tall, biennial. Leaves twice pinnate with ovate lobed seg- 

 ments. Flowers yellowish 1. C. Petrotelvnum. 



Slender annual. Leaves simply pinnate with ovate lobed seg- 

 ments. Flowers white 2. C. segetum. 



Stock short, covered with the remains of old leafstalks. Lower 

 leaves pinnate, with many distinct segments. Flowers 

 white. 



Segments of the leaves very numerous, short, fine, nearly 

 equal, apparently clustered or whorled along the main 



leafstalk 3. C. verticttlatum. 



Segments gradually diminishing in length from the base to 



the top of the leafstalks 4. C. Carvi. 



Eootstock a globular tuber. Lower leaves twice or thrice 



pinnate. Flowers white 6. C. BuTbocastanum. 



1. O. Petroselinum (fig. 410). Parsley. An erect, glabrous biennial, 

 or sometimes lasting 3 or 4 years, 1 to 2 feet high, with a thick root 

 and stiff branches. Leaves triangular in their general outline, twice 

 pinnate ; the segments stalked, ovate, lobed and toothed ; the upper 

 leaves less divided, with narrow, often linear, entire segments. Umbels 

 all stalked, not very large, with 15 to 20 or even more rays ; the general 

 involucre consisting of 2 to 4 or 5 short linear bracts, the partial ones 

 of several smaller bracts. Flowers rather small, of a greenish yellow. 

 P. sativum, Hoffm. 



A native, apparently, of the eastern Mediterranean region, much culti- 

 vated, and often establishing itself in waste places. In Britain it 

 appears quite naturalised in maritime rocks in several parts of northern 

 and western England. FL summer. 



2. 0. segetum (fig. 411). Corn C.A. glabrous, much branched, 

 slender annual, 9 to 18 inches high, sometimes more. Leaves chiefly 

 radical, not unlike those of Pimpinella Saxifraga, but smaller, simply 

 pinnate, with 5 to 10 pairs of sessile, ovate, toothed, or lobed segments, 

 8 to 6 lines long ; the upper leaves few and small, merging into linear 

 bracts. Umbels very irregular, the rays few and very unequal; the 



