394 MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



milky ; stems solid or fistular ; leaves mostly 

 alternate, variously divided ; flowers umbel- 

 late, involucrate, white, pink, yellow, or 

 blue ; calyx superior, 5-toothed ; petals and 

 stamens five; ovary inferior, 2-celled ; ovules 

 pendulous, crowned by a double fleshy disk ; 

 fruit a cremocarp, consisting of two carpels 

 adherent by their face to a common axis ; 

 seed pendulous, usually firmly adherent to 

 pericarp. From its vast extent, amounting 

 to 267 genera, and about 1500 species, it has 

 been subdivided as follows : — 



1. Sub-Family. — Orthospermce. Albumen flat 



on the inner face, neither involute, nor 

 convolute. 



2. Sub-Family. — Campylospermw. Albumen 



curved at the margins. 



3. Sub-Family. — Ccelospermce. Albumen cur- 



ved at the ends. 

 The species are also arranged according to their 

 properties into 1, harmless ; 2, those affording a 

 gum-resin ; 3, those yielding a volatile oil ; and 4, 

 the poisonous. Among the first are the Carrot 

 (Daucus), Parsnip (Pastinaca), Celery (Apium), 

 Parsley (Petroselinum), Fennel (Foeniculum), An- 

 gelica (Archangelica), Samphire (Crithmum), and 

 Earth-Nut (Bunium). The second divison affords 

 many medicinal agents, as the Assafoetida (Narthex), 

 Ammoniac (Dorema), Opoponax {Pastinaca), Gal- 

 banum (Opoidia), and Sagapenum, derived from a 

 species of Ferula. The third also yields numerous 



