172 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



long white hairs, the margins of the leaf-segments with short prickle- 

 like hairs. 



Common Venus'- Comb. 



French, Scandix Peigne de Yinus. German, KamvmfSrmiger Naddkerbel. 



This is a troublesome weed, to which, though slightly aromatic and acrid, no 

 particular use is attributed. Its common name is owing to the fact that the slender 

 tapering bunks of the seed-vessels are set together like the teeth of a comb. 



Tribe X.— SMYRNIEJE. 



Cremocarp shortly-ovoid or suh-glohular, laterally compressed, 

 usually didymous, not attenuated or beaked at the apex ; colu- 

 mella usually distinct ; mericarps with 5 primary filiform or winged 

 ridges, sometimes obliterated. Albumen of the seed with a deep 

 channel on the side next the columella. Umbels compound. 



GENUS XXXV.— E CHINOPHORA. Linn. 



Calyx-limb of 5 teeth. Petals obovate, emarginate, with an 

 indexed lobe the outer ones often radiant and bifid. Cremocarp 

 ovate-ovoid, scarcely laterally compressed, shortly acuminated at 

 tin' apex, enclosed in a cavity at the extremity of the peduncle, 

 surrounded by the rays and calyces of the exterior barren flowers 

 and by the involucel ; columella indistinct; mericarps with 5 de- 

 pressed undulated equal ridges ; interstices with a single vitta, 

 covered with a cobweb-like membrane. Albumen of the seed deeply 

 furrowed on the inner face. Involucre many-leaved, prickly. 



Herbs having decompound leaves, with the segments usually 

 spinescent. Central flower of the umbel female, the exterior ones 

 male with the ovary abortive. 



The name of this genus of plants comes from the words e^u-oc {echini s), a hedge- 

 hog, and (pepoi (phero), 1 bear, in allusion to the strong still' spines of the iuvolucrum. 



SPECIES 1— E CHINOPHORA SPINOSA. Linn. 

 Plate DCXXVIII. 



Leaves bipinnate ; segments subulate, spinous. Leaves of the 

 involucre entire, spinous. Flowers white, radiant. Plant sparingly 

 pubescent with minute hairs. 



On sandy sea-shores. Now extinct. Said, to have been found 

 near Weymouth, Dorset; between Faversham and Leasalter, 

 between Whitstable and Isle of Thanet, by Sandwich and near 



