APIACE^E. 



327 



fasciculate above the root, numerous, large, and spreading, of a light-green colour above, 

 paler beneath, of a dry, leathery texture. Petioles terete, amplexicaul, and channelled at 

 base, trifurcated a little above it, the divisions united at an angle with each other, as in a 

 tripod, and bipinnatisect. Leaf-segments linear-ligulate, obtuse, entire or sinuately-lobed, 

 either alternate or opposite, and usually inequilateral and decurrent, forming a narrow, 

 winged channel on the petiole. Midrib prominent on the under side. Veins slender and 

 much anastomosed. General and partial involucres wanting. Umbels 10 — 20-rayed, 

 arising from the dilated spherical head of a common peduncle. Rays 2 — 4 inches long. 

 Partial umbels with very short rays, collected in round capituli, having from 10 — 20 rays 

 in the fertile, and from 25 — 30 in the sterile. Flowers small. Margin of calyx obsolete, 

 being reduced to minute points. Petals of the sterile flowers small, oblique, inequilateral, 

 acute, without an elon- 

 gated apex. Stylopodia Fig. 157. 

 urceolate and plicated, 

 with a sinuous margin. 

 Styles filiform, reflect- 

 ed in the mature fruit, 

 rather short, attached 

 by a broad base. Fruit 

 from 7 — 15, on short 

 pedicels. Mericarps 

 varying from broad 

 elliptical to elliptic- 

 obovate, 5 — 6 lines 

 long by 3 — 4 broad, 

 flat, thin, foliaceous, 

 somewhat convex in 

 the middle, with a di- 

 lated border, mostly 

 inequilateral, of a 

 dark reddish-brown at 

 the centre, but lighter 

 at the edges, smooth, 

 and somewhat shi- 

 ning. Dorsal primary 

 ribs 5 ; the 3 middle of 

 which are filiform, a 

 little crenated at their 



junction ; 2 lateral ridges more obsolete, placed close to the margin, and immersed in the 

 substance of the border, but distinctly marked on the surface of the commissure, and con- 

 fluent with its middle nerve. Vittae in the dorsal furrows large and broad, filling the 

 whole width of the valleculas, usually single, but sometimes double, in one or other of the 

 middle furrows, and usually double or dichotomous in the broadest side of the margin. 

 Vittae of the commissure from 4 — 6, unequal and variable ; one very slender vitta, fre- 

 quently separating into two fine threads, confluent at the apex, being situated close to 

 each side of the middle nerve ; another, of the size of the dorsal vittae, placed more out- 

 wardly, and a third at the inner side of the dilated border, over the edge of the seed, more 

 slender, but often subdivided and interrupted so as to cover the border with a network of 

 anastomosing ramifications. Seed flat, with a plain albumen. Carpophore bipartite, per- 

 sistent, twice as long as the pedicels. Flowers white ? 



This plant is a native of many parts of Persia, and agrees in most respects 

 with the Assafcetida disgwiensis of Ksempfer, described a century and a halt 

 since, but not met with by any botanist, until Dr. Falconer found it at Astore. 

 This observer states that he compared his materials with Ksempfer's figures 

 and description, and with his original specimens in the Banksian collection 

 in the British Museum, and found them very similar. The main differences 

 are, that Ksempfer says the umbellulse have only 5 — 6 rays, whereas Dr. Fal- 

 coner found them to consist of 22 — 30 in the sterile heads, and 10 — 20 in the 



N. assafcetida. 



9. Ovary; style and stylopodium enlarged. 10. Partial umbel, with fertile 

 flowers. 11. Umbel of barren flowers. liJ. Partial umbel in fruit, with 

 persistent carpophores. 



