PARSLEY FAMILY 



199 



and inconspicuous heads of a few, minute flo'vcrs. which never rise 

 above the leaves, and require a close search to be detected at all. — 

 Marshes and bogs ; common. — Fl. May — August. Perennial. 



2. Ervngium (Eryngo). — Stiff, branched, often glaucous plants ; 

 leaves reduced to spinous sheaths ; flowers sessile, in dense heads 

 with a spinous involucre ; fna't covered with chaffy scales. (Name 

 of uncertain etymology.) 



1. E. mar'itimum (Sea Holl)', 

 Sea Eryngo). — A stout, stiff, 

 prickly, glaucous plant, with 

 more of the habit of a Thistle 

 than of the Order to which it 

 belongs. The large, fleshy, 

 brittle r/iizonies extend several 

 feet into the sand. The sle!?2s 

 are trichotomous and often pros- 

 trate ; floivers grey -blue. — 

 Sandy sea -shores ; frequent. 

 The rhizomes used formerly to 

 be candied as a sweetmeat. — Fl. 

 July, August. Perennial. 



2. E. r(7OT/'«/?r(Field Eryngo), 

 a taller, more erect, more slender, 

 more branched and less glaucous 

 species, with pinnatifid leaves, 

 occurs on waste ground and 

 ballast-heaps ; but is very rare. — 

 Fl. July, August. Perennial. 



*3. AsTRANTiA. — Erect 

 plants ; leaves palmatifid ; utnbels 

 simple or irregularly compound, 

 with involucres of large, simple 

 bracts, which are often coloured ; sepals leafy ; petals white or 

 pink, with a long inflexed point ; fruit ovoid with 5 wrinkled 

 toothed ridges and no vittae. (Name from the Greek astroii, a 

 star, from the star-like involucres.) 



r.* A. major (Greater Astrantia). — Stem r — 2 feet; leavei 

 2 — 7-lobed, serrate, with bristly teeth ; bracts ovate-lanceolate, 

 white below, green tinged with pink above ; flowers white or pink. 

 Naturalised in woods near Ludlow and Malvern. — Fl. June — 

 August. Perennial. 



4. Sanicula (Sanicle). — Slender, erect plants ; leaves palmately- 



L'LA EURnh'.H:.-\ {]V^7n^ Sanic^e). 



