196 UMBELLiFER^. [Smymium. 



Fruit* (cvemocarps, syndicarps) subglobosely gibbous, compressed laterally, 

 their truncate suraiait crowned with the small depressed stylopoiie, very sliori 

 spreadiiiii styles, aud thick calyciiie inargin. Mericarps with 5 proraineiu and 

 (when ripe) whitish, narrow, acute, nearly equidistant, undulately crenale riili/es, 

 the 2 marginal ones with a deep fissure between them aud their opposite fellovvs. 

 Interstices and faces of the commissure flat, in the ripe fruit purplish and rugosely 

 striate. 



V. Smyrnium, Linn. Alexanders. 



" Fruit of 2 nearly globose lobes or carpels, each with 3 dorsal, 

 prominent, sharp ribs, the two lateral ones obsolete ; interstices 

 in the several vittte. Albumen involute. Petals lanceolate or 

 elliptical, with an inflected point." — Br. Fl. 



1. S. Olusatrum, L. Common Alexanders. \ " Cauline leaves 

 ternate petiolate serrate." — Br. Fl. p. 175. E. B. t. 230. 



In waste grouud, amongst ruins, on hedgebanks, sea-cliffs, and in damp pas- 

 tures ; not unfrequent. J"/. May, June. /■>. August, September. $. 



E. Med. — Very rare about Ryde ; it grew rather plentifully in 1833 at the Bin- 

 stead entrance of Quarr copse, but is now almost eradicated. Close by the old 

 church, now a sea-mark, on the shore between St. Helen's and the Priory. Very 

 abundant and truly wild on banks facing Steephill, far from human habitations; 

 also at Ventnor, near the mill and elsewhere, pleiilifiilly. By Puckaster. By 

 Roughborough farm, in plenty; near Yaverland, and between Brading and San- 

 down by the roadside, also in Sandown vilage. In several places along the shore 

 between Bembridge and Culver clifl'. Most abundantly on hedgebanks in several 

 places a little E. of Bembridge, particularly in a lane just beyond, and which is 

 quite filled with it. Sparingly on a bank by the roadside near Osborne. Lanes 

 near Foreland form. 



W. Med.- — Abundant in an old churchyard just out of Yarmouth, and at Thor- 

 ley turnpike-gate. In hedgebanks about Norton and Thorley. Abundant amongst 

 the luins of Carisbrooke castle, probably the remains of ancient cultivation. 

 Abundant at Shorwell, on hilly ground at the entrance of the village from New- 

 port, on the side of the road opposite North Court, possibly cultivated there for- 

 merly. Abundant in a field by Suttiin. At the mouth of Biixton chine, with 

 Apium graveolens, and occiisionally about that village. 



Plant for the most pait perlectly glabrous, firm but succulent. Root fleshy, 

 fusiform, slightly branclied, brownish or blackish and wrinkled externally, yellow- 

 ish wdiite, very soft and spongy within, with an agreeable aiomatic smell and a 

 mild bitterish but not unpleasant taste. Stem erect, about 2, 3, or 4 feet high, 

 stout (ill the larger plants an inch or perhaps more in diameter at the base), teieli- 

 angular, smooth and shining, hard, film and fistulose, pale green with darker 

 striEe, alternately branched, the branches suberect or divaiieate. Badical leaves 

 \e\-y large, often 18 — 24 inches long exelusi\e of the petioles, trilernate, the pri- 

 mary and secondary di\isions remote, the teitiavy sometimes pinnate, their paitial 

 petioles (petiolets) compressed, flattened but sharply grooved and almost winged 

 above, sloping to an acute keel beneath, the common petiole extremely long, 



* For an account of the poisonous properties of the seeds (or carpels) of Hem- 

 lock see ' Phytologist' for February, 1843. 



f From the black seeds and dark green herbage is derived its specific name, — 

 Olus, a potherb, and ater, dark or black; the word Smymium, Xuupvlov is said 

 to be synonymous with Myrrha, Myrrh. For its English name Alexanders I 

 am quite at a loss to account, unless so called iu honour of the son of Philip of 

 Macedon, the plant being styled by the old writers Petroselinum Macedonicum 

 or Petroselinum Alexandrinuin. 



