UMBELLIFER^u 181 



in our crops, has been accounted a cure for flux, amenorrhoea, wounds 

 and vesicular affections. It is probably not much more active than 

 Smyrmunij to which the ancients attributed so many virtues. S. 

 Olusatrum ^ (fig. 142-144) has edible shoots, and supplies fodder for 

 animals. Its fruit is accounted antiscorbutic. S. perfoliatum ^ was 

 reputed aromatic and stimulant, as also S. rotundifolium.^ Molopo- 

 spermum cicutarium* (^g, 141) is said to be narcotic, and capable of 

 producing serious accidents, gangrene, &:c. 



Apium consists also of aromatic plants. The most common is the 

 Celery, believed to be a cultivated form of A. graveolens ^ (fig. 125), 

 whilst the wild plant is the Ache, the root of which is employed in 

 medicine, and whose fruit is aperitive, stimulant, carminative. The 

 Celery is very odorous, exciting, antiscorbutic.^ A, nodiflorum,'^ a 

 species common in our ditches, is considered poisonous, probably in 

 error, since it is eaten on the banks of the Ehine as watercress. It 

 is diuretic, and said to be efficacious in chronic cutaneous affections ; 

 its root is the Water-parsnip of some provinces. A. leptophylliim,^ a 

 species common in America, has aromatic, carminative fruit, now 

 little used.^ The Skirret has analagous properties much hke those 

 of Carum Sisarum. The types of the genus are Sium latifoUiim ^° and 

 angustifolium}^ They are said to have a poisonous root. The leaves 



^ L. Spec. 376. — Lamk. III. t. 204.— DC. T Sium nodiflo:um L. Spec. 361. — Sison nod'i- 



Trodr. iv. 247, n. 1. — Rosenth. op. cit. 557. — Jlorum Brot, Fl. Lusit. i. 423. — Seseli nodifio- 



S. Math. 11^ T. Inst. 316. rum Scop. — Helosciadium nodiflorum Koch, 



2 Mill. Diet. n. 3. — L. Spec. 376. — DC. f7m^. 125.— Rosenth. oji?. c«Y. 529. 

 Prodr. n. 2. — S. Dioscoridis Spkeng. Umb. 25. ^ Fimpinella leptophylla Pers. Syn. i. 324. — 



'Mill. Diet. n. 2. — DC. Prvdr. n. 3. — S. — P. lateriflora Link. — P. domivgensis W.— 



Dodoncei Spreng. — S. ramostim d'Urv. — S. Helosciadium laterijlorum Koch, Umb. 126. — II. 



ccgyptiacum L. Amcen. iv. 270. (Its fruit was leptophylluia DC. Mem. Soc. Gen. iv. ; Prodr. iv. 



formerly designated under the name of Semina 105, n. 6. 

 Smyrna cretici.) » The plant employed by the Indians of 



* DC. Prodr. iv. 230. — M. peloponesiacum Oregon and which Lindley named iff fosaa^JMW 

 Koch. — Athamantha GolaJca Hacq. (ex DC). — californicum, is a Sium. 



A.Gulatta QsiEh. — Ligusticum peloponesiacum Ij. ^o l. Spec. 361. — Jacq. Fl. Austr. t. 66. — 



Spec. 360. Hayn. Arzn. Gew. i. t. 38.— DC. P»Wr. iv. 124. 



^ L. Spec. 379.— Hayn. Arzn. Getv. vii. t. 24. — Rosenth. op. cit. 534. — Coriandrum latifolium 



—DC. Prodr. iv. 101, n. 1.— Guib. op. cit. iii. Cr. Fl. Austr. 219.— Prcpanophy Hum palustre 



207, fig. 613. — Rosenth. op. cit. 52S.— A. Hoffm. f/mi. 110. 



Celleri G^krtn. Fruct. i. t. 22.— Stseli graveolens ^^ L. Spec. 1672.— Jacq. Fl. Austr. t. 67.— 



Scop. FL Cam. n. ^60.— Sium apium Roth. Hayn. Arzn. Gew. i. t. 39.— DC. Prodr. n. 8.— 



* The same properties are said to be ob- S. erectum Huds. — Berula angustifolia Koch, 

 served, though in a less degree, in A. antarcti- Deutschl. Fl. ii. 455. 



cum Soland. prostralum, peregrinum, &c. 



