206 UMBELLiFER^. [CEnanthe. 



in the lower with a central perforation only through the while cellular tissue; pale 



glaucous-green, very deeply and sharply angular and sulcate, sparingly distantly 

 and alternately branched, the branches erect, patenter somewhat ascending, often 

 remarkably curved or tortuous in the nascent stale or before flowering. Leaves 

 mostly at the base of the stem, those higher up confined lo the forkings of the lat- 

 ter; radical leaves produced Lite in the year and growing through the winter, 

 spreading or prostrate, crowded and imbricated by their broad, sheathing, white or 

 greenish, ribbed bases, soon decaying after the plant comes into flower or even 

 earlier, deep dull green above, much paler beneath, succulent, their stout terete 

 petioles suddenly dilated into a broad membranaceous wing at each side, which 

 at the point of theii' divergence forms an elevated, abrupt, rounded apex, hi- or tri- 

 pinnatisected, extremely variable in size and shape, and in the degree and 

 mode of division of the leafiets ; in outhne the leaves are of an oblong-triangular 

 form, those nearest the root plane, usually lying flat upon the ground and soonest 

 decaying; the next above merely spreading, and with more or less erect divisions, 

 like those on the stem, lasting till the flowering time ; all, including their petioles, 

 about a span long at most, usually much shorter ; leaflets extremely liable to vary 

 in the degree and mode of division, even on the same leaf, so as to make it almost 

 impossible to define them with precision or to describe their multifarious modifi- 

 cations : on the very lowest of the root-leaves they aie generally pretty constantly 

 of a roundish or ovate figure, entire and wedge-shaped at base, and iu their less 

 deeply incised state very closely resemble on a reduced scale the leaflets of CE. 

 crocata; they are however quite as often more minutely and profoundly pinnati- 

 sected than in that plant, and even sometimes finely pinnatifid, with very narrow, 

 linear-lanceolate, acute segments ; superior stem-leaves few, distant, erect, longer 

 and narrower than those at the bottom, and much more uniform in their mode of 

 division and form of the leaflets. Petioles very variable in length. Umbels flat- 

 tish or convex only, never hemispherical, solitary and terminal, on very long leaf- 

 less peduncles, from about \i to 2 inches in diameter, compact, but lobed or 

 uneven in their circumscription, their primary rays rather numerous, short, much 

 thickened and more erect in fruit, deeply furrowed and angular ; umbelleis pretty 

 numerous, dense-flowered and crowded. General involucre of several linear, very 

 narrow and tapering leaflets, unequal and variable in length, but usually much 

 shorter than the rays ; partial ones many-leaved, their leaflets like those of the 

 general involucre, but longer in proportion to the rays, which they often equal in 

 length. Flowers small, inodorous. Calyx distinct, of 5 tooth-like segments, of 

 which the 2 exterior are much the largest, acute and somewhat acuminate. 

 Petals white,* very unequal. Stamens rather long, and, including the round 

 anthers, while, the latter at length cream-coloured ; fllaments wavy. Styles 

 whitish, tapering, erect, on tumid punctate stylopodes. Fruit crowded into a flat 

 level-topped or slightly convex umbel.f Syndicarps crowded, the exterior on short 

 inciassaled pedicels, the inner sessile or nearly so, subteretely pentangular and 

 prismatic, of uniform breadth throughout or subcylindrical, very flat or truncate 

 at top, crowned with the fleshy calyx, and long, subulate, erect or diverging styles 

 and their conical bases (stylopodes) ; abrupt at their lower end, which is more or 

 less enlarged into a whitish tumid callosity ; when ripe of a nut-brown colour ; 

 hemicarps closely united by their flat commissural faces, not contracted inwards, 

 hence presenting on their inner side a truly rectangular figure. Carpophore (none 

 according lo some authors), bipartite, deciduous, falling away with the fruit, its 

 two laminse remaining firmly attached along a groove to their respective hemi- 

 carps. 



The primordial leaves, or those immediately succeeding the colyledonous leaf- 

 lets, ate in this species distinctly cuneate and incised or subpinnatifid, whereas in 



* The petals of a., when placed beside those of /3., as I find it at the mouth of 

 Wootton river, have a faint cast of yellowish green, only observable by contrast. 



f In CE. Lachenalii the fruit of each umbellet forms a convex or hemispherical 

 head. 



