Apivm.] UMBELLIFER^. 197 



terete, hollow and nearly like the stem itself; leaflets opposite or partly alternate, 

 large, atout 2, 3, or 4 inches in length', variable in shape, rouiulish, roundish 

 ovate or ovate-ulilong-, coarsely and unequally serrate, the serratnres rounded and 

 apiculate, entire or variously (often Irifidly) and unequally incised, lolied, oblique, 

 even or subuordale at base, ihe laleial leaflets shonly stalked or sessile, the termi- 

 nal one usually a little remote and more rounded or ovale than the rest, and often 

 deeply 3-lobed or tcrnately incised like those of a vine or mulberry ; all deep dark 

 green, smooth, fleshy ; mure or less shining and strongly veined : stem-leaves like 

 those of the root but smaller, biternate, the uppermost simply ternate, their com- 

 mon petioles shorter than the leaves, and converted through their entire length 

 into very large, broad, pale green, partly clasping sheaths, with numerous strong 

 purplish ribs, their margins membranaceous and often a little woolly at their 

 summits, which are now and then auricled. Umbels terminal and apparently 

 though not really lateral from the ternate disposition of the branches, nearly sphe- 

 rical in an early state and on first expanding, finally spreading and flattish ; rciys 

 numerous, stout, deeply furrowed and angled, often a little downy or woolly at 

 their cartilaginous bases; umbellets small, closely crowded in flower, the rajs 

 extremely short, a few times the length of the flowers at most. Involucral bracts, 

 both general and partial, extremely inconspicuous, colourless, membiunaceous 

 and scale-like, of the umbellets more numerous and very minute, often somewhat 

 downy. Flowers small, partly imperfect (?), at least the styles are apparently want- 

 ing in many, though their bases or stylopodes are developed as usual. Petals 

 yellowish green, roundish, incurved, keeled, with short but distinct claws, and 

 acute but not acuminate inflexed points. Stamens much longer than the petals, 

 ascending ; anthers greenish ; pollen white. Styles simple, erect or a little 

 diverging, not spreading or recurved, short, stout and colourless ; stylopodes yel- 

 low, very large, subdcpressed and projecting. Syndicarps (diacheues) large, 

 glabrous, brownish black when ripe, broadly orbicular or rather wider than long, 

 crowned with the small convex stylopodes and short mostly reflexed styles, strungly 

 contracted laterally or didymous ; hemicarps subreniform, their lateral faces con- 

 verging into the very narrow commissural face, rounded at the back with 3 sharp 

 prominent primary ridges, the marginal pair and secondary ridges obsolete. In- 

 tercostal spaces wrinkled with several slender filiform vittee, visible chiefly in the 

 green or on a transverse section of the ripe fruit. Seed large, the albumen inio- 

 lute, opposite the commissure (campylospermous). Carpophore bipartite. 



Umbels globular and petals green in the early stage of inflorescence, the former 

 becoming flattened and spreading, the latter white, as they expand. This change 

 from an herbaceous to a white colour is common to some other plants, as the 

 Guelder Rose, Hydrangea, &c. 



The herb was formerly much esteemed for the table, boiled and eaten like 

 greens, even in the time of Dioscorides. Gerarde says, " The root here of is in 

 our age served to the table raw for a sallade herbe," but its use is now stjperseded 

 by Celery. 



From its occurring so frequently about the ruins of monasteries and churches, 

 many have supposed it to be not indigenous, but I am of opinion that it is 

 an aboriginal in Britain and most of the western and maritime parts of Europe 

 below 56°, beyond which it is scarcely found wild. 



This plant has long survived the memory of its cultivation here as a garden 

 vegetable, notwithstanding its continual occurrence about inhabited places proves 

 that it must once have been in general use in this island. 



VI. AproM, Linn. Celery. 



" Flowers perfect. Fruit rouBdish-ovate, didymous ; carpels 

 with 5 slender ribs, with single vittce between them and two on 

 the suture. Carpophore entire. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Petals 

 roundish, entire, with a small involute or inflexed point. (Invo- 

 lucres none)." — Br. Fl. 



