2 22 UMBELLfFERiE 



brads, bracteoles and calyx-teeth absent ; petals yellow, roundish, 

 entire, with an acute, involute point ; fruit much dorsaily com- 

 pressed ; lateral primary ridges forming thin, flat, distant wings ; 

 vittce solitary, linear. (Name, the Classical Latin name of the 

 plant.) 



i. P. saliva (Common Parsnip). — A downy erect plant, 2 — 3 

 feet high, with tap root ; stem angular, hollow ; leaves pinnate, 

 glossy, downy beneath ; leaflets 5 — 11, sessile, ovate, serrate; 

 umbels terminal, ebracteate ; flowers small, bright yellow. — Banks 

 on calcareous soil ; not uncommon. Differing from the culti- 

 vated form chiefly in its smaller root. — Fl. July, August. Bien- 

 nial. 



37. HerAcleum (Cow-Parsnip). — Large plants ; eaves 1 — 3- 

 pinnate ; leaflets broad, lobed ; umbels compound, many-rayed ; 

 bracts deciduous ; flowers white or pink, the outer ones irregular ; 

 fruit as in Peucedanum, but with short, club-shaped vitta. (Named 

 after the hero Heracles.) 



1. H. Sphondylium (Common Cow-parsnip, Hog-weed). — A very 

 tall and stout plant, with a channelled hairy stem, 4 — 6 feet high ; 

 large, irregularly cut, rough leaves ; and spreading umbels of con- 

 spicuous white flowers. — Hedgerows ; common. In spring the 

 plant is remarkable for the large pale oval tufts formed by the 

 sheathing bases of the cauline leaves distended with the flower- 

 buds. In the outer flowers the symmetric enlargement of one 

 deeply 2-lobed and inflexed petal, and the unsymmetric modifica- 

 tion of those on either side of it, should be noticed. This, like 

 many other Umbelliferse, is often confounded by farmers with the 

 poisonous Hemlock ; but cattle eat it with impunity. — Fl. July. 

 Perennial. 



A gigantic, handsome Siberian species, H. gigdnteum, is com- 

 monly grown in shrubberies, and may occur as an escape. 



*38. Tordylium (Hartwort). — Hairy annuals with pinnate 

 leaves, linear bracteoles and thick wings to the fruit formed by the 

 lateral ridges, is represented by T. maximum, a slender, hispid plant 

 with reflexed hairs and small, 6 — 8-rayed umbels of pink flowers, 

 which occurs in waste places at Oxford, Eton, and Isleworth ; but 

 is not native. — Fl. June, July. Annual. 



*39. Coriandrum (Coriander), also slender annuals, but 

 glabrous, with pinnately decompound leaves, few-rayed compound 

 umbels with no bracts, few thread-like bracteoles, petals often 

 irregular, and very globose, slightly ridged fruit, is represented by 

 C. sativum, an occasional escape from cultivation in the south and 



