314 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



Group XXIL— Umbellales. 



Order 53.— APIACE^E.— Lindley. 



Calyx coherent with the surface of the ovary, its limb entire, five-toothed or obsolete. 

 Petals 5, inserted with the 5 stamens on a disk crowning the ovary. Styles 2, sometimes 

 united and dilated at base (stylopodium). Fruit dry, separating from each other, and 

 often from a slender axis (carpophore), into two indehiscent carpels (mericarps), adhering 

 by their faces (commissures). They are marked by a definite number of ribs (juga), 

 which are sometimes produced into wings; the intervening spaces (intervals'), as well as 

 the commissure, sometimes contain canals or receptacles of volatile oil called vitta. 



This very extensive and difficult order is composed of herbs with hollow 

 stems, and mostly with alternate and much-divided leaves, with the petioles 

 sheathing or dilated at base. The flowers are in simple or mostly compound 

 umbels, sometimes contracted into a kind of head. They are found in all 

 parts of the world, but are most abundant in the northern hemisphere. In 

 tropical regions they are confined to the sea-side or to the mountains. They 

 are all furnished with a volatile oil or balsam, most plentiful in the root and 

 seeds ; some again furnish gum-resins, and a few are pervaded in every part 

 with an alkaloid, acro-narcotic principle. Many species are used as articles 

 of food, and still more are medicinal. 



Without attempting a detailed enumeration of the real or asserted proper- 

 ties of the numerous species used as food or medicine, the following brief 

 notice will explain the general properties of the most important of them. 



Among the poisonous species, Conium is the most striking for its acro- 

 narcotic powers. A violent poison also exists in the roots of Cicuta macu- 

 lata ; the C. virosa is also very active, causing tetanic convulsions. Haller 

 is of opinion that it was the Conium of the Greeks. The leaves of JElhusa 

 cynapium are also noxious, as are the roots of (Enanthe crocata. Many also 

 of the cultivated species, as Celery and Parsnip, are injurious in their wild 

 state. The roots of Lichtensteina pyrethrifolia are used by the Hottentots to 

 prepare an intoxicating drink. 



The most generally employed of those with aromatic and carminative 

 seeds are Anise, Caraway, Coriander, and Cummin. Of those which afford 

 gum-resins, the most important are the Ferulas yielding Asafoetida. Galba- 

 num is said to be produced by the Opoidia galbanifera, but is also furnished 

 by other plants. Opoponax chironum yields Opoponax. Gum ammoniacum 

 is partly derived from a Dorema, and partly from a species of Ferula, and it 

 is thought that Sagapenum is also obtained from another species of the 

 same genus. 



Numerous plants of this order are employed for fo*od, as Parsnips, Carrots, 

 Celery, Parsley, Samphire, &c, besides many others of less note. 



Orthospermjs. 



Section 1. Saniculea. — Fruit ovate-globose. Vittae often wanting. 



Eryngium. — Linn, 



Flowers sessile. Calyx-tube with scale-like vesicles, lobes somewhat leafy. Petals 

 connivent, oblong, with a long inflexed point. Styles filiform. Fruit obovate, nearly 

 terete, squamatc or tuberculate. Carpels scmi-tcrete, without vittae or ribs. Carpophore 

 adnate with the carpels. 



The genus Eryngium consists of herbaceous or sufFruticose plants, with 



