PAESI.EY FAMILY. 349 



small, white, in irregularly compound umbels. Kays and pedicels 

 unequal. Involucre and involucels none. Calyx-teeth wanting. 

 Fruit somewhat laterally compressed, elliptic-cordate, more or less 

 tuberculate, with concave seed-face. Oil-tubes solitary in the inter- 

 vals, 2 on the face. Seed-face narrowly concave. (Apium, Celery, 

 and aster, Latin suffix meaning wild.) 



1. A. angustifolium Nutt. Erect, di- or tri-chotoraously branched 

 from the base, 4 to 8 or 15 in. high; leaves opposite below, twice or 

 thrice ternately dissected into linear segments, J to 1 in. long; umbels 

 sessile in the forks or opposite the upper leaves, consisting of 2 or 3 

 umhellets borne on unequal rays (1 in. long or less), and of 1 or 2 

 usually sessile or sometimes pediceled flowers in the center; umhellets 

 3 or 4-flowered, the pedicels unequal (4J lines long or less) or 1 flower 

 sessile; fruit cordate, broader than high, less than 1 line long, papil- 

 late-roughened all over; ribs inconspicuous; carpels concave on the 

 face. 



Dry mountain slopes of the Coast Eanges: Lake Co.; Vaca 

 Mountains; Napa Mountains; Mt. Tamalpais; Potrero, San Fran- 

 cisco; San Gregorio; Oakland Hills; Mt. Diablo; foothills of the 

 Santa Clara Valley and Loma Prieta, Davy; Pajaro Hills, Chandlei-; 

 Alcalde, and southward to Southern California. Also in the Sierra 

 Nevada (Folsom, Mokelumne Hill). Apr.-May. A plant of pecul- 

 iarly irregular inflorescence. 



10. CONIUM L. 



Tall branchingbiennial with dissected decompound leaves. Flowers 

 white, in compound umbels. Involucre and involucels small. 

 Calyx-teeth obsolete. Fruit broadly ovate, somewhat laterally flat- 

 tened. Eibs prominent. Oil-tubes none. (Ancient Greek name.) 



1. C. maculatum L. Poison Hemlock. Stem dotted with 

 purple marks, 4 to 7 ft. high; leaves 1 ft. long or more, the segments 

 incised or pinnatifid; bractlets ovate-lanceolate, commonly 3; rays 10 

 to 13 or more, less than 1 to IJ in. long; fruit IJ lines long; shorter 

 than the pedicels. 



Naturalized from Europe: Monterey; Lake Merced;- Marin Co.; 

 Berkeley; Lafayette; Mormon Island; Santa Lucia Mountains; 

 San Luis Obispo; Mokelumne Hill. May-June. Herbage unpleas- 

 antly odorous when bruised. 



11. VEL/EA DC. 



Subglabrous perennials with thick yellow elongated odorous roots. 

 Leaves mostly radical, pinnately or in ours ternately compound. 

 Ours usually without involucre, the involucels in our species of few 

 small lanceolate bracts. Flowers yellow, in compound umbels. 

 Calyx-teeth mostly small. Fruit oblong or orbicular, glabrous or 

 pubescent, somewhat laterally compressed, with prominent equal ribs. 

 Oil-tubes conspicuous, 3 to 6 in the intervals, 4 to 10 on the commis- 

 sural side. Carpophore undivided. Seed-face strongly involute, 

 enclosing a central cavity. (Sebastin Eugene Vela, student of the 

 Umbelliferae.) 



