^thusa.] UMBELIilFEE^. 209 



Europe from Portugal to Scotland, bat it is unknown in the interior of the Euro- 

 pean continent, as Germany, &c. The roots, as I learn from the peasants of this 

 island, prove speedily fatal to swine, that are tempted, perhaps by some sweetness 

 of flavour they possess, to grub them out of the soft soil ; and one man related an in- 

 stance, coming under his own knowledge, of several of these animals being thus lost 

 through having been driven into the marsh-meadows, where the plant abounded. 

 The same person remarked to me that cows eat the herbage with impunity, and 

 this seems correct, as I remarked all the plants of this species in a meadow near 

 Easton to be quite stripped of their leaves, and with nothing but the bare stems 

 remaining, — I suppose by the cattle that were grazing in the field at the time. 



The specific name was given to this species from the deep yellow (crocatus) 

 juice stated by many authors to exude from the root and stem when cut across, 

 but the existence of which is denied by others. Dr. Bell-Salter assures me that 

 about Poole it emits, both from the stem and root, a very deep yellow, thick and 

 strongly scented juice ; and that he has remarked the samejuice, though paler 

 in colour, in plants growing at Bembridge, in this island. The roots resemble 

 those of the Dahlia, and instances have been relatfed to me of their having been 

 sold to credulous persons for that handsome plant. 



(Enanthe Phellandrium (in pools and ditches), thought to have been found in 

 the Isle of Wight by the Rev. G. E. Smith and Mr. Curtis, both at the back of 

 the island. See Curt. Br. Entom. xi. fol. 606. It grows abundantly in marsh- 

 ditches at Gomer Pond, near Gosport. 



XVI. .S^THusA, Linn. Fool's Parsley. 



" Fruit ovate-globose. Carpels with 5 acute ribs ; interstices 

 deei^ly acutangular with single vittce. Calyx-teeth minute. Petals 

 obcordate, with an inflected xDoint. (Partial involucre of 1 — 3 

 unilateral drooping or spreading leaves.)" — Br. Fl. 



1. M. Gynapium, L. Common Fool's Parsley. Lesser Hem- 

 lock. " Leaflets wedge-shaped decurrent with lanceolate bluntish 

 segments, rays of the umbel nearly equal, involucre none, partial 

 one longer than the umbel." — Br. Fl. p. 169. E. B. t. 1192. 



In waste and cultivated ground, cornfields, neglected weedy gardens, and about 

 fences &c. -FA June? — September. 0. 



Root whitish, fusiform, in the larger plants more or less branched and woody, 

 in the smaller and younger simple and succulent. Stem erect, rather slender, 

 from 5 or 6 inches to 1 or 2 or even ;? feet in height, terete, finely angulate-stri- 

 ate, hollow, more or less branched, the branches erect; pale green, with a slightly 

 glaucous bloom removable by friction, often spotted or suflfused with purple, espe- 

 cially below. Leaves dark or sometimes light green, much paler and mostly 

 shining beneath, bipinnate or subtri pinnate, the lower leaves on longish, semite- 

 rete, caniculate petioles, with ribbed, sheathing, not inflated bases, with white 

 membranous borders, the superior sessile but with similar sheaths ; primary pinnae 

 stalked, the basal pair remote ; secondary pinnae or leaflets shortly petiolate or 

 attenuated and confluent below, flat, mostly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, cuneate at 

 base, deeply and for the most part trifidly pinnatisect, the ternrinal lobe in gene- 

 ral again once or even twice trifidly incised or pinnatifid, the ultimate segments 

 in all more or less ovate-elliplical or sublanceolate, acute or obtuse, tipped with a 

 small bristly point, their margins thickened, spinulose, cartilaginous. Umbels 

 lateral and terminal opposite the leaves, flat or a little convex, rather small, from 

 about 1-^ to 2 or 2,^ inches across, on long, naked, deeply furrowed stalks ; general 

 umbel of 5 or more rays, longer than the other more numerous and interior ones, 

 roughly setose, pubescent on ibeir grooved upper side, those of the partial umbels 

 (umljcllets) subterete and glabrous or nearly so. Bracts of the general involucre 



2 E 



