Genus 22. 



CARROT FAMILY. 



639 



22. BUPLEURUM [Tourn.] L. Sp. PL 236. 1753. 

 Annual or perennial herbs, with simple entire clasping or perfoliate leaves, and compound 

 umbels of yellow or greenish-yellow flowers. Involucre none in our species. Involucels of 

 S ovate mucronate bracts. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Petals broad, the apex inflexed or infolded. 

 Stylopodium conic. Styles short. Fruit oblong or oval, somewhat compressed laterally. 

 Carpels angled, with slender equal ribs; oil-tubes none in our species. Seed-face concave. 

 [Greek, ox-ribbed, referring to the leaves.] 



About 65 species of wide geographic distribution. Besides the following another occurs in 

 the Rocky Mountains and northwestern America. Type species : Bupleurum rigidum L. 



I. Bupleurum rotundifolium L. 



Hare's Ear. Thorough-wax or 

 -wort. Modesty. Fig. 3133. 



Bupleurum rotundifolium L. Sp. PI. 236. 1753. 



Annual, erect, rather stiff, branching, 

 glabrous, pale, l°-2° high. Leaves broadly 

 ovate, or oval, mostly obtuse, mucronate, 

 I'-li' long, perfoliate, or the lowest nar- 

 rowed into a petiole ; umbels terminal, 3-6- 

 rayed, the rays seldom oyer 4" long; bracts 

 of the involucels about as long as the rays, 

 yellowish; fruit glabrous, about i4" long. 



In cultivated fields. New Hampshire to 

 North Carolina, west to South Dakota, Ten- 

 nessee, Kansas and Arizona. Naturalized 

 from Europe. July-Aug. 



Bupleurum Odontites L., also European, 

 with narrowly linear leaves, is recorded as 

 found in Massachusetts. 



23. THASPIUM Nutt. Gen. i : 196. i8U 

 Perennial herbs, with ternate or ternately compound leaves, or the basal ones some- 

 times undivided, and compound umbels of yellow or purple flowers. Involucre none, or 

 of 1-3 bracts. Involucels of several small bracts. Calyx-teeth prominent, acute. Stylopo- 

 dium none. Style slender. Fruit ovoid or oblong, glabrous or nearly so, scarcely flattened. 

 Carpels somewhat dorsally flattened, the ribs or at least some of them strongly winged; 

 oil-tubes solitary in the intervals, 2 on the commissural side. Seed-face flat. [Name in- 

 directly from the island Thapsus.] 



Only the following species, natives of eastern North America. Type species : Thaspium 

 aureum Nutt. 



Leaves mostly ternate ; segments crenate, thickish. 

 Leaves mostly biternate ; segments incised or lobed, rather thin. 

 Segments ovate, incised. 

 Segments pinnatifid into oblong lobes. 



1. T. trifoUatum. 



2. T. harbinode. 



3. T. pinnatifidum. 



Thaspium trifoUatum (L.) Britton. Purple Meadow-Parsnip. Fig. 3134. 



667. 



Club 



Thapsia trifoliata L. Sp. PI. 262. 1753. , 



Smyrnium atropurpureum Desr. in Lam. Encycl. 3 



1789. 

 Thaspium aureum Nutt. Gen. i • 196. 181 8. 

 Thaspium atropurpureum Nutt. Gen. i : 196. 181? 

 T. trifoUatum Britton, Mem. Torr. Club 5: 240. iS 

 Thaspium trifoUatum aureum Britton, Mem. Torr. 



5: 240. 1S94. 



Glabrc'.-s throughout; stems erect, more or less 

 branchet, i°-2° high. Upper stem-leaves short-peti- 

 oled, ternate, or rarely biternate, the segments ovate 

 or ovate-lanceolate, 1-2' long, crenate-dentate all 

 around; basal leaves long-petioled, sometimes undi- 

 vided; umbels i'-2' broad; petals dark purple or 

 yellow ; fruit 2" long, all the ribs usually winged. 



In woods, Rhode Island to Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, 

 Missouri, Arkansas and Wyoming. Purple alexanders. 

 Round-heart. The purple-flowered and yellow-flowered 

 races are apparently, otherwise indistinguishable. June- 

 July. 



