Ferula. UMBELLIFER2E. 271 



23. HERACLEUM, Linn. Cow Parsnip. 



Calyx-teeth small or obsolete. Disk undulate; stylopodium conical. Fruit 



strongly flattened, orbicular or elliptical, the broad wings coherent till maturity ; 



dorsal ribs hliforni or obscure ; oil-tubes obclavate, extending downward from the 



apex rarely to the base, solitary in the intervals, 2 on the commissure. Seed flat 



and thin. — Perennials or biennials, niostty stout and pubescent; leaves ample, 



lobed or compound ; umbels many-rayed ; involucre usually few-leaved, caducous ; 



involucels many-leaved ; flowers white. 



About 50 species are found in the north temperate zone of the Old World, a single one extend- 

 ing to America and ranging through much of British America and the United States. 



1. H. lanatum, Michx. Very stent. 4 to 8 feet high, pubescent : petioles 

 greatly dilated; leaves ternate; the divisions petiolulate, round-cordate, 4 to 10 inches 

 broad, unequally lobed; lobes acuminate, toothed : rays 3 to G inches long: flowers 

 large, the outer petals often dilated: fruit broadly obovate, 4 to G lines long, slightly 

 pubescent. 



Wet soils in the mountains, from Monterey northward, and in the Sierra Nevada at a height 

 of 6,000 to 8,000 feet 



24. FERULA, Linn. 



Calyx-teeth obsolete. Disk small and stylopodium depressed. Fruit oblong- 

 elliptical or nearly orbicular, strongly compressed dorsally, the corky marginal wings 

 (in American species) as thick as the seed, coherent till maturity ; the dorsal ribs 

 filiform ; oil-tubes very numerous, obscure, or sometimes wanting. Seed flattened. 

 Carpophore bifid. — Smooth, nearly acaulescent perennials, with thick fusiform 

 roots: leaves pmiiatelv decompound; flowers yellow, in many-rayed umbels. 



Nuttall's genus Leplolcenia, of the western roast, kept distinct by Bentham .t Hooker, is re- 

 ferret] by I >r. Ilray to this large I Ud World genus. /'...'..'.; •, of the Eastern States, is separated 

 only by its manifest calyx-teeth and more acuminate and impressed petals. In addition to the 

 following western species a fourth is found in S. Utah and New Mexico, F. Newberryi (P 

 danum Newberryi, Watson, in Am. Naturalist, vii. 301), of dwarfer habit, strictly acaulescent, 

 and with less divided leaves. 



* Leaves finely divided. 



1. F. diSSOlllta, Watson. A stout coarse plant, the short stems numerous from 

 a very thick root, leafy at base : leaves broad, ternate and thrice ('innate, the 



or oblong segments a half to an inch long, pinnatifidly laciniate-lobed and toothed, 

 puberulent on tin' veins beneath: peduncles stout, 1 or 2 feet long; rays 2 to 5 

 inches long, tnvolucrate with a few linear entire or lobed bracts; involucels of 

 several linear bractlets: Bowers yellow or purplish, numerous : frail 8 or '.' lines 

 long, -'W, broad, almost sessile, the thickened margin :-! of a line broad : dorsal ribs 

 filiform ; oil-tubes very obscure and much interrupted, wanting on the commissure. 

 — Leptotamia dissecta, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 630. Cynapium (!) Bigelovii, 

 Torrey, Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 94. Ferula dissecta, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 348, 

 not Ledebour. 



Valleys and liill.idrs, flowering iii early spring, from Mi udocino I bounty north to Puget Sound ; 

 Klamath Lake (Fremont) ; Murphy's Camp, Bigelow. A specimen from Borax Laki . 

 having broad regularly elliptical fruit only 5 lines long, is no otherwise different. 



2. F. multificla, < tray, 1. c. Like the last, but with more finely divided leaves, 



the umbels without involucre, flowers less densely crowded, and the pedicels of the 

 fruit 2 to 12 lines long. — Watson, l'.ot. King Exp. 127. /. multifida, 



Nutt. 1. c. 



On the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada fi n City northward to i . and east to 



Utah. Tlie root is often v,.y largo. 



