THE UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE. 29 



sepals, the petals, the stamens, and the pistils, grow 

 separate from each other ; but in umbelliferous plants, 

 whose ovary is inferior, the principal part of the 

 calyx, the stalks of the petals, and the lower half of 

 the filaments, grow to the sides of the ovary so 

 firmly that they cannot be separated, and hence 

 the ovary looks as if it grew beneath the other parts ; 

 while, in reality, the parts of the flower, both of the 

 Crowfoot and Fool's Parsley spring from the top of 

 the flower-stalk, beneath the pistil; but in the former, 

 they are all separate ; while in the latter, they grow 

 all together. 



After the petals and stamens have fallen off", the 

 ovary gradually increases in size ; the furrows on its 

 surface become deeper ; it hardens, acquires a dull 

 browTi colour, and, at last, a fruit {fig- 6.) is formed, 

 which, in time, separates into two halves {fig. 7- «• 

 b.), or grains ; which are what are vulgarly and in- 

 accurately named seeds. 



These are the principal peculiarities in the flowers 

 of umbelliferous plants ; and they will always serve 

 to know them by. You may, if you wish it, render 

 their characters more simple and more easy to re- 

 member, by taking the essential distinction of um- 

 belliferous plants to consist in fiowers growing in 

 umbels^ and inferior fruit, which when ripe separates, 

 or may be separated, into two grains. The appearance 

 of this order is, however, so peculiar, that I have no 

 fear of its being recognised with certainty after you 

 have seen a few more instances of it. 



Let us now return to the means of distinguishing 



