SHEPHERD'S NEEDLE. 87 



already figured, bears only one flower, the umbel is said 

 to be simple, but when the other arrangement is seen 

 the umbel is termed compound. The umbel of the 

 shepherd's needle is usually only composed of two di- 

 verging stems, though we sometimes find three : one 

 example of each of these is seen in our figure, the upper 

 one having three rays and the lower two. The small 

 umbels that surmount these usually bear about half-a- 

 dozen flowers each. Where the rays of an umbel spring 

 we ordinarily get a ring of leaves or bracts, and this is 

 called botanically an involucrum ; and when the umbel 

 branches again we get a second ring, and this is termed an 

 involucel. This may sound alarmingly technical to some 

 of our readers, but we are obliged to go thus far because 

 we could not else point out an interesting feature in the 

 plant. In the shepherd's needle the involucrum is wanting, 

 though some of the upper umbels, as in our figure, spring 

 from the ,xil of the sheath of the upper leaves, while the 

 involucel is very large. It may be seen immediately below 

 the flowers. It is much larger in proportion than we find 

 it in most other plants, and the interesting points to notice 

 are its size, the fact that the general involucre is altogether 

 wanting, and the smallness of the number of the rays that 

 go to make up the umbel. A comparison with almost any 

 other umbel-bearing plant will at once illustrate and 

 enforce these points. The order includes such well-known 

 plants as the celery, parsley, carraway, fennel, parsnip, 

 carrot, and hemlock, together with many others. The 

 length of the beaks of the seed-vessels, and the large and 

 bifid leafy bracts of the involucel, at once distinguish the 

 shepherd's needle from all the other plants of the order, 

 though a strong family likeness runs through them all, and 



