UMBELLIFER^. 



115 



is, on transverse section, circular or slightly compressed parallel to 

 the commissure, flat or slightly concave, and has five prominent 

 primary ridges, equal or nearly so, prismatic or rather obtuse. Each 

 furrow contains one vitta, rarely two, and sometimes also each 

 primary ridge has one finer. Very prominent in the interior of the 

 pericarp, the vittse are moulded on the seed, which becomes longi- 

 tudinally channelled and the face of which is flat or traversed by a 



Seaeli gummiferum. 



fig. 115. Long. sedt. of flower (f). 



Fig. 116. Trans, sect, of fruit i 



shght vertical furrow. Bubon macedonicum is a Seseli with bristly 

 fruit and fine vittse under its primary ridges, This genus comprises 

 perennial or biennial herbs, with compound umbels. In the true 

 Seseli, the involucre is nil or formed of a small number of bracts, and 

 the bracteoles of the involucels are free or scarcely united at the base. 

 In Libanotis, the involucres, like the involucels, are formed of nume- 

 rous bracts. In Hippomarathroides, another section of the genus, 

 there is no involucre ; but the bracts . of the involucels are generally 

 united to a considerable extent in a sort of cupule. Seseli inhabits 

 chiefly the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere of the old 

 world ; but it is found, in smaller number, in Australia and North 

 America. We must refer to this genus as sections : Cachrys 

 dbyssinica, of which a genus DiplolopMum has been made, and which 

 has, with a peculiar habit, an involucel with large bracts nearly free 

 and a seed slightly concave within ; Portenschlagia, a Dalmatic plant, 



I 2 



