UMBELLIFERJE. 



113 



Good Hope, not a little resembling a Fumariea, whose small irregu- 

 larly compound umbels bear flowers with a somewhat irregular 

 corolla succeeded by a small oval fruit, much compressed parallel to 

 the partition. The three 



^ , . . ^ Theocarpus meifolius. 



dorsal primary ridges are 

 linear and indistinct ; the 

 marginal are dilated to a 

 narrow wing on which the 

 vittae are represented by 

 small orbicular reservoirs 

 filled with an oily resinous 

 substance. Theocarpus (fig. 

 112) is a perennial plant 

 from the Levant, the ex- 

 ternal characters of which 

 bear some resemblance to 

 those of Echinojjhora, near 

 wdiich it has sometimes been placed. Its ovoid fruit with a nearly 

 circular transverse section, is surrounded by the accrescent bracts of 

 the involucel, hardened or spinescent, and connate with the pedicels 

 of the peripheric flowers which remain sterile. 



Cachrijs (fig. 113) has given its name to a subseries which in 

 many respects approaches several others, and is characterized 

 by a fruit, ordinarily large for this 

 family, hard, nearly round or more 

 or less compressed parallel to the 

 partition, sometimes having angles 

 or salient wings, with indistinct 

 vittae, often indefinite in number, 

 applied to the seed the face of 

 which is much hollowed, with in- 

 duplicate or involute edges. The 

 mericarp finally assumes a suberose 

 consistence. In the true Cachrys, 



it is very thick, smooth, and without projections on its surface. In 

 those of the section Prangos, the primary ridges or some of them are 

 dilated to a wing. C, goniocarpa and some other species are inter- 

 mediate in that their mericarps have five slightly prominent angles. 

 In C, sicula, placed in the genus Hippomarathriim, these angles 



VOL. VII. I 



Cachrys goniocarpa. 



Fig. 11 a. Trans, sect, of mericarp (?). 



