96 PENTANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Selinum. 



1. H. vulgaris. Common White-rot. Marsh Penny- 

 wort. 



Leaves orbicular, peltate, smooth ; cloven at the base. 

 Umbels somewhat aggregate. Flowers nearly sessile. 



H, vulgaris. Linn. Sp. PL 338. mild. v. 1. 1360. Fl. Br. 290. 



Engl. Bot. V. 11.^.751. Curt. Loncl. fasc. 6. t. 19. Hook. 



Scot. 87. Richard Hydroc. 25. f. 1. Fl. Dan. t. 90. Lind. Hort. 



266. t. 12. Rail Syn. 222. 

 H. n. 812. Hall. Hist. v.\.36\. 



Ranunculus aquaticus, cotyledonis folio. Baith. Pin. ] 80. 

 Cotyledon palustris. Dod. Pempt. 133./. Ger. Em. 529. f. 

 Aquatica Cotyledon acris septentrionalium. Lob. Ic. 3S7.f. 



On moist heaths, boggy commons, and the margins of little clear 

 rivulets, very frequent. 



Perennial. May, June. 



Roots fibrous. Stems creeping to the extent of 2 or 3 feet, slender, 

 smooth, often subdivided, quite prostrate. Leaves solitary or 

 aggregate, on upright n'lmple footstalks 2 or 3 inches high ; ho- 

 rizontal, nearly orbicular, doubly crenate, smooth, light green, 

 with 8 or 9 branching ribs, radiating from the centre, and a 

 notch, more or less deep, at the base Flower-stalks axillary, 

 1 or more accompanying each group of leaves, shorter than the 

 footstalks, with a pair of broad bracieas at the base. Umbel very 

 small, its rays so short as to be scarcely observable, usually 

 about 5, with 3 or 4 thin lanceolate bracteas at their base. Fl. 

 small, white or reddish. Fruit somewhat wrinkled, compressed, 

 like all the preceding, laterally, that is, contrary to the ^wnc/Mre,- 

 and not much more so than several of the foregoing genera or 

 species. 



This herb is acrid, and probably, like others of the umbelliferous 

 tribe, growing in wet places, poisonous. But whether it causes 

 the rot in sheep, and indeed whether those animals ever touch 

 it, is doubtful. Too moist a pasture is known to produce that 

 disease, and there the Hydrocotyle is generally to be found. 



168. SELINUM. Milk-parsley. 



Lin7i. Gen. 133. Juss.223. Fl. ^r.303. Spreng. Prodr. 15. Lam. 



i. 200. Gcertn. t.2\. 

 Thysselinum. Tourn.Inst.3\9. Spreng. Sp. Umb. 70. 



FL all perfect and regular ; some of the innermost only oc- 

 casionally abortive. Cal. of 5 minute, spreading, some- 

 what pointed, permanent teeth. Pcf. involute, pointed, 

 inversely heart-shaped, equal. Filam. thread-shaped, 

 spreading, about the length of the corolla. Antli. round- 

 ish. Gcrmcn inierii)r, ovate, compressed, ribbed, some- 



