VAlliKLLirLK-E. 



01 



GENUS //.-AST RANT I A. Linn. 



Calyx-limb of 5 large lanceolate teeth. Petals erect, oblong- 

 ovate, with an inflexed lobe. Cremocarp oblong-ovoid, clothed 

 with imbricated scale-like plaits on the ridges, crowned by the 

 lanceolate calyx- teeth; columella adnate ; mericarps scarcely 

 separable, with enlarged prominent ridges ; vittae none. 



Herbs with simple roundish palmately-lobed or -partite leaves. 

 Umbels simple, many-flowered, compact, sometimes combined into 

 a very irregular compound umbel. Flowers white or pale pink, 

 the central ones perfect, the exterior ones male with the ovary 

 abortive. 



The name of this genus of plants comes from the Greek word ao-yov (astro/i). a 

 star, in reference to the appearance of its umbels of flowers. 



SPECIES I.— AST RAN TI A MAJOR. Linn. 



Plate DLXVII. 



Hack. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XXI. Tab. 1843. 

 BiUot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 367. 



Eadical leaves circular, palmately partite ; lobes 5, rarely 8 

 or 7, ovate-lanceolate, acute, often trifid, doubly dentate-serrate, 

 with the serratures produced into cartilaginous bristles ; cauline 

 leaves few and much smaller. Calyx-teeth lanceolate, acuminate- 

 aristate, longer than the petals. Involucre of numerous oblan- 

 ceolate acuminate leaves, equalling or exceeding the flowers. 

 Cremocarp oblong-prismatic, slightly attenuated towards the base. 



In woods. Rare, possibly planted. Discovered by Mr. Daniel 

 Sharp by a path along the upper edge of the wood above Stokesay 

 Castle, near Ludlow, Shropshire, and between AYhitbourne and 

 Malvern, Herefordshire. 



England. Perennial. Summer and Autumn. 



Rootstock shortly creeping, clothed at the summit with a few 

 of the fibres of the decayed leaf-stalks. Stem 1 to 2 feet high, 

 simple or slightly branched. Radical leaves several, on petioles 

 3 to 9 inches long; lamina 2 to -1 inches across, sub-cordate at the 

 base. Stem-leaves shortly stalked, with the petiole enlarged like a 

 sheath. General umbel so irregular that the inflorescence might 

 be said either to be in simple umbels, or in an irregular compound 

 umbel with the rays of unequal length, and some of them with smaller 

 opposite umbellules below the terminal one ; at the base of this 

 pseudo-general umbel there is an involucre of large leaf-like bracts, 



