12Jj ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES L— CEN AN THE PISTULOSA. Linn. 



Plate DXCIII. 



lieiclt. Ic. PI. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XXI. Tab. 1898. 

 Billot, Fl. Gull, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 091. 



Root-fibres generally thickened, fusiform or cylindrical, the 

 subterranean part of the stem with numerous capillary fibres and 

 stolons. Stem erect, fragile, hollow, with a large bore, constricted 

 at each node, slightly branched. Leaflets of the radical leaves 

 pinnatifid, cut or entire, with strapshaped or elliptical, short, rather 

 obtuse lobes; petioles of the stem-leaves hollow, usually much 

 longer than the pinnate portion, which has 2 or 3 pairs of narrowly 

 strapshaped elongated leaflets. Terminal umbel with 3, the others 

 with 3 to 8 rays ; umbellules dense, globose in fruit. Involucre 

 none. Cremocarp* oblong, obconic, angular, without a callous ring 

 at the base, not contracted at the summit. Styles equalling or 

 slightly exceeding the fruit. 



In ditches and wet places. Common in England, rare in 

 Scotland ; where, however, it occurs, and reaches as far North as 

 the counties of Dumbarton and Elgin. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Root-fibres generally deeply buried in the mud, often only slightly 

 thickened, and sometimes the thickened fibres appear to be entirely 

 wanting; above this the stem is clothed with radical fibres, and 

 produces elongated stolons, terminating in a tuft of small pinnate 

 leaves. Root-leaves triangular in outline, with the leaflets always 

 short, but varying in the degree of incision, ^ to ^ inch long, 

 decayed by the time of flowering. Flowering-stem 1 to 3 feet 

 high, as thick as a swan-quill, with the substance of the tubular 

 stalk very thin and compressible, slightly constricted at each node. 

 Petioles 2 to 9 inches long, the pinna' -]- inch to 2 inches, each pair 

 distant about its own length from the one below it. Umbels termi- 

 nating the stem, but afterwards appearing lateral, from the growth 

 of axillary branches, the one which opens first wis h rarely more than 

 3 rays, which are ^ to li inch long; umbellules l to f inch across, 

 slightly convex in flower, distinct from each other; exterior flowers 

 :]: inch in their longest diameter, conspicuously radiant ; fertile 

 flowers much smaller : all the umbels, after the our which termi- 



* The shape of the cremocarp in the descriptions of CEnanthe applies to that of 



the outer fruits of the ambellules, as the interior ones are generally distorted hy 

 pressure 



