CoNiuM. UMBELLIFERyE. 283 



involucels about 3-leaved. Fruit crowned with the conspicuous stylopodium and short recurved 

 styles ; the ridges distinctly waved. 



Road-sides, waste grounds, etc. ; naturahzed in many places. A native of Europe. Fl. June 

 - September. Fr. August - October. The leaves exhale a strong disagreeable odor when 

 bruised. This plant is a powerful narcotic poison. It has long been used in medical practice. 

 The active principle, called conicine, is a colorless oily liquid, lighter than water, of a strong 

 aod penetrating odor, and causing death almost as rapidly as prussic acid. 



Series 3. Ccelosperm.e, DC. Seeds with the base and apex curved inwards, or saccately 



concave. 



Tribe X CORIANDREJE. Koch; DC. 

 Fruit globose, or the carpels globose and didymous : primary ribs of each carpel 5, depressed 

 and fleocuous, or nearly obsolete ; the secondary ones i, more prominent : all ivin^less 

 — Umbels compound. 



20. ERIGENIA. Nutt. gen. 1. p. IS7 ; Endl. gen. A359. ERIGENIA. 



[Erigenia is a name of Aurora, tlie harbinger of day or of the spring. Nhttall.] 



Margin of the calyx obsolete. Petals obovate-spatulate, flat, entire. Stylopodium depressed. 

 Fruit contracted at the commissure, didymous. Carpels ovoid-reniform : ribs filiform ; the 

 3 dorsal ones slightly prominent ; the lateral ones near the commissure. Vittae very slender, 

 3 - 4 in each interval and 6 - 8 in the commissure. Carpophore adherent. Seed with a 

 broad deep cavity on the face, gibbously convex on the back. — A small smooth vernal 

 perennial, with a globose tuberous root and a short caudex. Leaves 1-2, nearly radical, 

 bi-triiernately divided ; the segments pinnately 3 - 5-parted. Peduncle elongated. Umbel 

 of 3 - 4 rays, compound, subtended by an involucral bipinnatifid leaf; or the peduncle 

 may be regarded as a branch, bearing a single sessile leaf, and a compound sessile umbel 

 at the summit. Involucel of 3 - 8 linear-oblong entire leaflets. Umbellets 3 - 5-flowcred. 

 Flowers white. 



1. Erigenia bulbosa, Nuit. (Plate XXXIX.) Bulbous-rooted Erigenia. 



Null. I. c; DC. I c. ; Torr. <^ Gr.fl. N. Am. 1. p. 645. Sison bulbosum, Michx.fl. 1. 

 p. 169. Hydrocotyle composita, Pursh, fl. 1. p. 190; Torr. fl. 1. p. 304. H. ambigua, 

 Pursh, I. c. 2. p. 732. H. bipinnata, Muhl. cat. p. 29. 



Root a small round fleshy tuber, about half an inch in diameter, and buried deep in the 

 ground. Caudex 1-2 inches high, usually furnished with but a single leaf. Petiole twice 

 3-partcd, sheathing at the base : secondary divisions bipinnately dissected ; the lobes linear- 

 oblong, mostly obtuse. Peduncles 1 - 2, or rarely 3, from the sheathing base of llic petiole, 



36* 



