UMBELLIPER^. (PARSLET FAMILY.) 149 



in hard, horn-like albumen. — Stems usually hollow. Leaves alternate, 

 mostly compound, the petioles expanded or sheathing at the base. Um- 

 bels usually compound; when the secondary ones are termed umbeUets: 

 each often subtended by a whorl of bracts (involucre and involuceh'). — 

 A large family, some of the plants innocent and aromatic, others with 

 very poisonous (acrid-narcotic) properties ; the flowers much alike in all, 

 — therefore to.be studied by their fruits, inflorescence, &c., which like- 

 wise exhibit comparatively small diversity. The family is therefore a 

 ' difficult one for the young student. 



Synopsis. 



I. Inner face of each seed flat or nearly so (not hollowed out). 



■* Umbels simple or imperfect, sometimes one growing from the summit of another. 



1. HYDROCOTYLE. Truit orbicular, flat. Leaves orbicular or rounded. 



2. ORANTZIA. Truit globular. Leavea thread-shaped, fleshy and hollow. 



* # TTmbelB or umbellets capitate, imperfect : i. e. the flowers sessile in heads. 

 8. SANICULA. Fruit clothed with hooked prickles. Flowers polygamous. 

 4. ERYNQIUM. Pruit clothed with scales. Flowers in thick heads, perfect, 



* * * Umbels compound and perfect ; i. e. its rays bearing umbellets. 



•*- Fruit beset with bristly prickles, not flat. 



6< DAUCUS. Fruit beset with weak prickles in single rows on the ribs. 



'*- ■*- Fruit smooth, strongly flattened on the back, and single-winged or margined at the junc> 



tion of the 2 carpels (next to the commissure). 



6. FOLYT^NIA. Fruit surrounded with a broad and tumid corky mai^n thicker than the 



fruit itself, which is nearly ribless on the back. 



7. HERACLEUM. Fruit broadly wing-margined : the carpels minutely 5-ribbed on the back : 



lateral ribs close to the margin. Flowers white, the marginal ones radiant. 



8. PASTINACA. Fruit wing-margined : ribs of the carpels as in No. 7. Flowers yellow, the 



marginal ones perfect, not radiant. 



9. AROHEMORA. Fruit broadly winged : the 6 ribs on the back equidistant ; the 2 lateral 



ones close to the wtng. Flowers white. Leaves pinnate or 3-foUolate. 



10. IIEDEMANNIA. Fruit winged, much as in No. 9. Leaves simple, long and cylindrical, 



hollow, with some cross partitions, 

 -t- -t- -t- Fruit smooth, flat or flattish on the back, and double-winged or margined at the edge, 

 each carpel also 3-ribbed or sometimes 3-winged on the back. 



11. ANGELICA Carpels with 3 slender ribs on the back ; a single oil-tube in each interval. 



Seed not loose. 



12. ARGHANQELICA. Carpels with 3 rather stout ribs on the back, and 2 - 3 or more oil- 



tubes in each interval, adhering to the loose seed. 



18. CONIOSEHNUM, Carpels with 8 wings on the back narrower than those of the margins. 



-«- +- +- M- Fruit smooth, not flattened either way, or slightly so, the cross-section nearly orbic- 

 ular or quadrate ; the carpels each with 5 wings or strong ribs. 



Jt, .ffiTHUSA. Fruit ovate-globose : carpels with B sharply keeled ridges, and with single oil- 

 tubes in the intervals. 



15. LIGUSTICUM. Fruit elliptical : carpels with 5 sharp almost winged ridges, and vrith 



several oil-tubes in each interval. 



16. THASPrUM. Fruit elliptical or ovoid : carpels 6-winged or 6-ribbed, and with single oil- 



tubes in each, interval. Flowers yellow or dark purple. 

 4. 4- 4- 4- 4- Fruit smooth, flattened laterally or contracted at the sides, wingless. 

 17 ZIZXA. Flowers yellow. Fruit oval, somewhat twin : the carpels narrowly 6-ribbed : oil- 

 tubes 3 in each interval. Leavea compound. 

 13* 



