96 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Peuccdanttm Pastinoca. 



with micropyle exterior and superior.^ In the Peiicedans proper,^ it 

 becomes a fruit much compressed parallel to the partition, elliptic, 

 oval or more rarely oboval or suborbicular, the mericarps of which 

 are slightly convex at the back, flat on the ventral surface and sur- 

 rounded by a thin or winglike margin, entire. This margin, before 



maturity, is closely applied to that of the 

 other carpel, so that the contour of the fruit 

 has, at first, a perfectly simple appearance. 

 On the back of the carpels are three fine 

 primary ridges, often scarcely raised. The 

 intermediate furrows, four in number, have 

 vitise almost always solitary and extending 

 the entire length of the furrow. There are 

 sometimes vittse under the primary ridges 

 and there is one at least on each side of the 

 median line, on the commissural face of the 

 carpels. The Peucedans are herbaceous plants. 

 Fig. 83. Fruit (0- rarely shrubby, sometimes annual, glabrous 



or more rarely scabrous or hairy. The leaves are alternate, pinnati- 

 or ternati-decomposite, rarely compound pinnate, with narrow or 



Peiiceda))um Pastinaca. 



Fig. 84. Trans, sect, of fruit ('^). 



wide divisions, and the upper are often reduced to sheaths, sometimes 

 surmounted by the remains of the limb. The umbels are terminal, 

 compound, with bracts, indefinite in number, to the involucres and 

 involucels which may also be wanting. This is particularly the case 



^ Its coat is sometimes single, very little de- 

 veloped and even almost nil. In some Peucedans 

 2 ovules are at first seen in each cell, one of 

 which is ascending and soon aborted. 



^ Eupeueedanum. From this sect., I cannot 



separate Xanthoselinum Schur. E/ium. PI. 

 Trans. 264 {Tceniopetalnm Bge. Mini. Sax\ Etr, 

 Acad. Pitersb. vii. 303), the mericurps of which 

 easily separate from each other. 



