412 PHYSOSPERMUM. [class V. ORDER II. 



leaflets wedge-shaped, lobed, and cut, the margins rough; those of the 

 stem linear, lanceolate, entire. 



Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 140. — Physospermum commutatum, 

 Sprengel. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 126. — P. aguilegifolium, Koch. — 

 Ligusticum aqnilegifolium, Willd. — L. Cornubiense, Linn. — English 

 Botany, t. 683.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 82. 



Root tapering, branched, somewhat fibrous. Stem erect, from one 

 and half to two feet high, with short branches in a paniculated manner 

 towards the top of the stem, round, slender, striated, purplish in the 

 lower part, and roughish, with close short woolliness, quite smooth 

 above. Leaves from the root and base of the stem seldom more than 

 two or three times ternate, on long striated purplish footstalks, chan- 

 neled on the upper side, dilated, and somewhat sheathing in the lower 

 part, mostly smooth, but sometimes roughish, with close woolliness in 

 the lower part, leaflets wedge-shaped, lobed, and cut, pale beneath, 

 with darker branched veins, smooth, or scattered over with hairs, and 

 the margins almost always rough, with short hairs; leaves of the stem 

 few, simple, lanceolate, short, or with one or two linear lanceolate seg- 

 ments. Umbels terminating the stem and branches, the general of 

 about ten nearly equal spreading smooth striated rays, the partial of 

 numerous short ones. General and 2^(t'>'iiO'l involucre of from one to 

 five lanceolate somewhat membranous ribbed spreading segments. 

 Flowers numerous, white or cream coloured, nearly regular. Calyx of 

 five small teeth. Petals inversely heart-shaped, with an inflexed 

 point. Stamens with slender filaments and small yellow anthers. 

 Styles short, elongating, and spreading. Stigmas small, obtuse, 

 somewhat capitate. Disk fleshy, flat, or convex. Fruit almost glo- 

 bose, the sides compressed, and the margins between the carpels 

 contracted, smooth, except at the top somewhat roughish, crowned by 

 the disk and styles. Carpels with five ridges, equal, three at the back, 

 and the two lateral ones forming or within the margin. Channels 

 shallow, each with a broad single vittcB. Albumen loose within the 

 thin swollen pericarp, half moon-shaped, on a transverse section. 



Habitat. — Bushy places about Bodmin, Cornwall, and near Bidde- 

 ford, Devonshire ; very rare. 



Perennial ; flowering in July. 



This very rare British plant is spoken of in English Botany "as 

 never having been found in any other part of the world except in 

 Cornwall." We have specimens which we collected last year in sandy 

 fields near the sea, along the north coast of Portugal, which differ in no 

 respect from those which we have from Cornwall and Devonshire; it 

 is not, however, there by any means a common plant, and grows in 

 open as well as bushy places ; and in shady places in the North of Italy 

 abundant, especially at the Lucca Baths. 



