CLASS V. ORDER 11.] CENANTHE. 375 



Perennial ; flowering in July. 



3. CE. peucedani' folia, Poll. (Fig. 438.) Sulphur-weed Water 

 Drop-wort. Root with fleshy sessile tubercles, mixed with branched 

 tibres ; radical leaves bi-pinnate, the upper pinnate, all with narrow 

 linear leaflets ; general involucre wanting. 



English Botany, t. 348. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 70. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 131. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 120. 



Root with several fleshy sessile elliptical tubers, intermixed with 

 long slender branched fibres. Stem erect, smooth, striated, or angular, 

 branched and leafy, from one to three feet high. Leaves smooth, 

 alternate, on long striated footstalks, with a sheathing dilated base, the 

 root leaves bi-pinuate, «ith linear leaflets, the upper ones simply 

 pinnate, with longer narrower leaflets, acute, and with a slender mid- 

 rib. Umbels lateral and terminal, of about eight angular unequal 

 rays, the partial of numerous short irregular ones General involucre 

 wanting, or of two or three short narrow linear segments, the partial of 

 numerous narrow irregular lanceolate ones. Flou-ers numerous, 

 crowded, white or pinkish, the outer ones barren. Calyx of five short 

 lanceolate irregular teeth, especially on the outer flowers. Petals five, 

 unequal, especially on the outer flowers, inversely heart-shaped, the 

 outer ones largest, with the sides of the base curved inwards, and 

 forming a kind of canal. Stamens with long slender filaments and 

 small roundish purplish anthers. Fruit when ripe crowded into small 

 roundish heads, crowned with the elongated rigid styles and small 

 conical base, oblong, contracted at the base and slightly beneath the 

 calyx. Carpels with five prominent obtuse ridges, the lateral ones 

 slightly broader than the others, and forming the margin. Channels 

 with single rather large vittce. Albumen roundish, somewhat flat in 

 front. 



Habitat. — Fresh water, ditches and marshes. Oxfordshire, Bed- 

 fordshire, Suff'olk, Sussex.— il/r. Borrer. Lincolnshire. — R. D. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



The tubers of this and the above species, GE". pimpinelloides, contain 

 a farinaceous matter, with a pleasant nutty flavour, and in some parts 

 of the Continent they are cultivated and much esteemed as a vege- 

 table ; but though mild and wholesome when cultivated, they are in 

 the wild state dangerous, and cannot be used with impunity. This is 

 another example of the advantages derived from careful cultivation, 

 in rendering that which is unwholesome and deleterious in the wild 

 state, bland, and nutritious, and subservient to our wants. 



The two species, CE". pimpinelloides and 2^eucedanifolia, are nearly 

 allied to each other; the principal difi'erence appears to be in the 

 leaves and the shape of the fruit, to which characters the student mu!>t 

 give much attention in distinguishing the species of this order. 



