CEnaiithe.] umbellifer^. 207 



CE. LachenalH the primordial leaves have the leaflets 3-cleft, the seg^ments obo- 

 vate or oblong and for the most part quite entire. The fresh radical tubers have a 

 nutty flavour, with a slight impression of heat and acrimony, but are neither 

 unpalatable nor, I believe, deleterious when eaten, and might perhaps by culliva- 

 tion be improved and rendered an agreeable esculent. Lloyd (' Flore des Envi- 

 rons de Nantes ') says that the tubers of CE. peucedanifolia "are eaten by children 

 in Brittany as those of Bunium flexuosum are in our own country. 



/3. The general involucre in this plant is, I believe, seldom absolutely wanting, 

 but is usually reduced to one or two linear leaflets, often so small as to be over- 

 looked ; hence DeCandolle very properly says " involucro subnuUo." The root is 

 very variable in appearance, sometimes with, much oftener without tubers, and 

 when growing in muddy ditches, as I have found it at Freshwater, becomes a 

 bundle of innumerable fibres. The leaflets of my Isle-of- Wight specimens are in 

 general much longer than they are represented in E. B. or by PoUich ; and I find 

 examples by the Yar, below the bridge at Freshwater, in the strongest and wet- 

 test salt-marsh, passing into a. and always wanting the tubers said to be essential 

 to CE. peucedanifolia. One or more of the radical leaves have elongated or linear 

 leaflets, whilst those on the remaining root-leaves are short, ovate-lanceolate, or 

 even approaching to wedge-shaped, as in the common state of CE. pimpinelloides. 

 I am quite convinced that neither the tubers on the root, nor the presence or 

 absence of the general involucre, are of any value ; and the only remaining dis- 

 tinction, derived from the form of the radical leaves, is as little to be relied upon. 

 I have gathered it at Bulwerhithe, near Hastings, and so far from being confined 

 to the vicinity of fresh water, my own experience would lead me to pronounce it 

 to be a mere salt-marsh variety of CE. pimpinelloides, since it is in such situations 

 I find it displaying most perfectly the characters assigned to it by Pollich, the 

 original author of the species CE. peucedanifolia.* 



3. CE. Lachenalii, Gmel. t Parsley Water-dropivort. "Leaf- 

 lets of the lower leaves Unear obovate or cuneate-trifid obtuse 

 mucronate, of the upper ones acute, fruit turbinate or oblong nar- 

 rowest and without a callosity at the base." — Br. Fl. p. 167. E. 

 B. V. t. 347 (sub OE. pimpinelloides). Fl. Dan. ix. t. 1454. Lej. 

 et Court. Comp. Fl. i. p. 235. 



In low wet and especially salt-marsh meadows and pastures ; a far less common 

 plant in this island than the one last described. Fl. June — September. Er. 

 October, November. 2^. 



E. Med. — Abundant on the flat grassy shore on the W. side of the Wootton 

 river, at its mouth. [St. Helen's spit; South side of Brading harbour; A. G. 

 More, Esq. — Edrs.] 



W. Med.— On the salt-marsh and pastures adjoining along the East side of the 

 Yar, in considerable plenty, and precisely the same plant as that at the Wootton 

 river, noticed. All over that part of Wilmingham heath which borders the salt- 

 marsh shores of the Yar, growing amongst the furze &c., in comparatively dry 

 soil. All over the marsh-meadows at Easton, Freshwater Gate. 



Root a bundle of whitish or brownish simple fibres, partly cylindrical and partly 

 incrassated by very gradual enlargement into an oblong or fusiform shape towards 

 their extremities.! Stem as in CE. pimpinelloides, but somewhat less deeply 



* [From the notes published in the ' Phytologist,' vol. iii. p. 405, by our author, 

 and which we believe were penned subsequently to the text above, it appears that 

 he afterwards came to the conclusion that PoUich's plant is not so likely to be a 

 variety of CE. pimpinelloides as of the following, CE. Lachenalii, or even a distinct 

 species. — Edrs?^ 



\ For excellent descriptive characters of this species and CE. pimpinelloides, see 

 M.J.Lloyd's ' Flore de la Loire Inferieure,' 12mo, Nantes, 1844, pp. 113 and 114. 



I This enlargement of the radical fibres T suspect does not take place till the 



