310 UMBELLiFEE^. [Foeniculum. 



none (occasionally one, BertoL); o( the partial ones 3 — 5, linear, unilateral, pen- 

 dant or deflexed, mucronate-acuminate, longer than the umbellules, or in starved 

 specimens about equal to the latter, shortly margined and membranous at base. 

 Flowers white, all perfect. Cab/x very minute. Petals profoundly and unequally 

 obcordate, their points involute, the exterior lurger and ladiant ; anthers white or 

 pinkish. Styles at first white, erect or spreading, at length reflexed and purplish, 

 their bases (stylopodes) tumid, lobed, and dotted with depressed points. Fruit 

 (syndicarps) about 2 lines in length, ovato-globose, glabrous, crowned with the 

 reflexed styles; mericarps with 5 stout, very prominent, acutely keeled, corky 

 ridges, of which the 2 lateral or marginal are thicker, dimidiate and narrowly 

 winged at the commissure ; vilta: solitary between each ridge and only apparent 

 on a transverse section, the posterior flat face of each mericarp with a very distinct 

 pair towards the centre, of a pellucid yellow and linear not clavate form, converg- 

 ing but not meeting below, approximate above and separated only by the bipar- 

 tite carpophore. 



XVII. FcENicuLUM, Hoffin. Fennel. 



" Fruit oblong. Carpels with 5 prominent, obtnse ribs, with 

 single vittcs in the interstices. Styles short. Calyx-teeth obso- 

 lete. Petals roundish, entire, the involute segment obtuse. (In- 

 volucres 0)." — Br. Fl. 



" Above the lowly plants it towers. 

 The Fennel with its yellow flowers. 

 And in an earlier age than ours 

 Was gifted with the wondrous powers 



Lost vision to restore ; 

 It gave new strength and fearless mood. 

 And gladiators, fierce and rude. 

 Mingled it in their daily food ; 

 And he who battled and subdued 



The wreath of Fennel wore. ' 



t?l. Y.vulgare, Qddxta.. Common Fennel. " Leaves biternate, 

 leaflets pinnatifid, segments awl-shaped or filiform." — Br. Fl. p. 

 169. Anethum Foeniculum, L. : E. B. t. 1208. 



On dry banks, waste ground, and clifls by the sea, but not common. Fl. July 

 — September. Ft. October. H.. 



E. Med. — In Binslead stone-pits, pretty plentiful in one spot, but I suspect not 

 truly wild there. Naturalized on waste ground near the Infant School, Ryde. 

 Common and possibly indigenous on steep banks facing the sea at Venlnor. On 

 a chalky bank by Upper-Morton farm, near Brading, 1849, in some plenty; 

 naturalized no doubt from the farm -garden, as I do not remember to have 

 seen it there previously. Between Chine cottage and Rose cliff, under a steep 

 bank on which Piunns Cerasus grows abundantly, 1840. 



W. Med. — Naturalized abundantly in Northwood part, on the side of an old 

 garden. Hedgebank near Gurnet bay. [Apparently wild in many places at 

 Brighstone, growing wherever the soft sand-roek is exposed, Dr. Bell-Salter. — 

 Edrs.] 



Syndicarps ovato-oblong, glaucous, crowned with the very short reflexed styles; 

 hemicarps with 5 equidistant, prominent, thick ridges, of which the 2 lateral are 

 quite marginal, and more obtuse than the 3 dorsal ridges ; vitttB linear, very dis- 

 tinct, single between each ridge, and a pair on the inner face of each hemicarp, 

 one on cither side of the carpophore, which Sir W. Hooker's figure does not repre- 

 sent, but which I find constant in all ray specimens. 



In consequence of some remarks by Mr. Babington in Man. of Brit. Bot., I 



