200 UMBELLiFER-E. [Helosciadium. 



secondary (primary, Koch) ridr/ps obsolete. Carpophore divided, but the divisions 

 usually closing together after the fruit drops, appearing at first sight entire. 



This species appears to be mostly bieimial with us, the seeds coming up in 

 autumn, and producing bunches of radical leaves, lying flat and spreading in a 

 circular form on the ground, which remain through the winter. The spring fol- 

 lowing, the flowering stem is produced and the plant dies off entirely, the root- 

 leaves decaying Ion',' before the seed ripens. 



The plant would prnbably be found well wovihy of cultivation as a winter salad, 

 as it remains green and tender throughout the severest season of the year, and the 

 leaves are without acrimony. 



VIII. Helosciadium, Koch. Marshwort. 



" Fruit broadly ovate or oblong. Carpels with 5, slender, pro- 

 minent ribs, with single vittse between them ; carpophore entire. 

 Calyx-tecfh small or obsolete. Petals ovate, obtuse with an api- 

 culus." — Br. Fl. 



1. H. nocliflormn, K. Procumbent Marshzvort. " Stem pro- 

 cumbent creeping, leaves pinnate, leaflets ovate or ovate-lanceo- 

 late unequally serrate, umbels opposite to the leaves. 



" a. Larger, leaflets bluntly serrate, umbels longer than the peduncles or nearly 

 sessile. Sium, X. : E. B. t. 639. 



" /3. Smaller, leaflets acutely serrate, umbels shorter than the peduncles. Sium 

 repens, L.: E. B. t. 1431." — fir. Fl. p. 162. Fl. Dan. ix. t. 1^14. Jacq. Fl. 

 Aust. m. 34, t. 260. 



Abundant in shallow ditches and pools, clear rills, brooks and plashy spring- 

 heads. Fl. July— October. 1^.. 



fi. In wet sponay places and by shallow brooks. Colwell heath. Wet places 

 about Ryde, W. Wilson Saunders, Esq. On St. Helen's green ? 



A very troublesome plant in our marsh-drains and ditches, which it soon fills 

 completely if not cleared out at slated times. The smaller leaves look like those 

 of Watercress, and are liable to be gathered for it by ignorant persons, but I do 

 not know that they are deleterious in their nature. Like GEnanthe crocata this 

 is quite a western species, and nearly unknown to the inland Floras of the Con. 

 tinent. It however occurs very abundantly in wet places in and about Charles- 

 ion, S.C., thouj^h I suspect originally imported ; the leaves of the American spe- 

 cimens, as I have seen them, are smaller than is usual in the European plant. 



2. H. iimndatum, Koch. Least Marshwort. " Stems creep- 

 ing, lower leaves capillaceo-multipartite, upper ones pinnatifid, 

 umbels generally of 2 rays." — Br. Fl. p. 163. Sison, E. B. t. 

 227. 



Floating in pools, ditches and plashes, or creeping on their partially exsiccated 

 margins ; rare. i^/. June, July. Zf. 



E. Med. — Pond at the foot of Bleak Down, near the branching off of the roads 

 to Chale, Niton and Godshill, in great plenty. 



W. Med. — In a little pool surrounded by willow-bushes at the back of Tljorness 

 wood, and not far from Great-Thorness farm, very abundant. In a pool on a 

 common called Goldens, in the parish of Freshwater. In a pool with Sparga- 

 nium simplex, by a cottage on the skirts of a fir-plantaiion adjoining Burnet 

 wood. In a little pit near the sea between Newtown and East Hampstead ? 



