SilaUS.] UMBELLIFER*. 211 



examined ihe stems of numerous individual plants of Fennel in several wild loca- 

 lities, and find the stem usually with a perforation in the centre, mostly of small 

 diameter, sometimes in the upper, sometimes in the lower part of the stem, the 

 lesl and sometimes the entire stem being completely filled with pith throughout. 

 One of the finest and most aromatic of our Umbeltiferw, growing in a chalky 

 soil to 6 or 7 feet high, with a diameter of an inch or more at the base of the 

 stem. 



Very abundant and truly wild in many places along the S. coast of England, 

 but not indigenous to Scotland, nor at a distance from the coast, either with us or 

 on the Continent.* 



Marschall von Bieberstein (Fl. Taur.) relates that in November. 1796, when a 

 Russian army lay in the plain of Schirvan, before the town of Schamakia, on the 

 Caspian, they found this plant so abundantly that for eight days they scarcely 

 used any firewood but the dried stems. The Sweet or Italian Fennel is a mere 

 variety of the common species, with its aroma a little heightened perhaps by cul- 

 tivation ; yet the wild plant can hardly be excelled in the delicacy of its smell 

 and flavour, more grateful than in any other British species of this natural order. 



XVIII. SiLAUS, Besser. Pepper Saxifrage. 



" Fruit oval. Carpels with 5 sharp, somewhat winged ribs, 

 with many vittse in the interstices. Calyx obsolete. Petals obo- 

 vate, subemarginate with an inflected point, appendaged; or sessile 

 and truncated at the base. (Partial involucre of many leaves)." — 

 Br. Fl. 



1. S. pratensis, Bess. Meadow Pepper Saxifrage. " Leaves 

 tripinnate, leaflets linear-lanceolate opposite, general involucre of 

 1 or 2 leaves." — Br. Fl. p. 170. Peucedanum Silaus, L. : E. B. 

 t. 2143. Jacq. Fl. Aust. i. 12, t. 15. 



In rather moist meadows and pastures, open grassy places in woods, and along 

 roadsides, hedgebanks, &c. ; frequent in very many parts of the island. M. June 

 — September. !(.. 



E. Med. — About Ryde in a little patch of wood by the lodge-gate of Hyde 

 house, and between Quarr abbey and the Fish-houses. Common in woods about 

 Cowes, between Cowes and Wootton bridge. 



W. Med. — Frequent about Yarmouth, towards Ningwood, &c. Northwood 

 park. Miss G. Kilderhee ! 



Herb glabrous in every part. Root slout, long, tapering and cylindrical, black- 

 ish brown, and transversely wrinkled and furrowed externally, very white, soft and 

 spongy within, dividing at the summit in the larger plants into several crowns, 

 bristly with the filamentous remains of former root-leaves. Stem 1 or more, erect, 

 from ] to 2 or 3 feet high, occasionally twice as tall, slightly zigzag or waved, 

 rounded and subterete below, angular-suloate above, often purplish at base and 

 along the angles, with several distant, alternate, erect branches, and completely 

 filled with the large white pith. Radical leaves often very large, of a triangular 



* Fennel is a favourite food of the larvae of the great swallow-tail butterfly 

 (Papilio Machaon), which is occasionally seen in this island. I have never 

 remarked it on the wing here myself, but have seen a specimen taken ofl' the 

 forest-land (Parkhurst) many years since, and am told it was not then uncommon. 

 In a letter from the Rev. W. T. Bree that gentleman tells me he captured six or 

 seven specimens of this fine insect near Yarmouth, and saw a few more in diffe- 

 rent parts. Whether the insect breeds with us, or flies over from the opposite 

 coast of Hampshire, I do not know ; if the former, the larva ought probably to be 

 sought for on Daucus Carota. 



