178 THE UMBELLATE FAMILY. 
tufts of leaves and flowers. Leaves orbicular, 4 to.1 inch diameter, 
crenate or slightly lobed, and attached by the centre to a rather long 
stalk. Peduncles shorter than the leafstalks, with a single terminal 
head, or 2 or even 38 whorls of minute white flowers on very short 
pedicels. Fruits small, flat, and glabrous, about a line in diameter. 
In bogs, marshes, edges of ponds and lakes, in temperate Europe, 
from southern Scandinavia to the Caucasus. Frequent in Britain. 1. 
summer. 
II. SANICULA. SANICLE. 
Herbs, with a perennial rootstock ; palmately divided leaves, mostly 
radical; and erect, almost leafless stems, irregularly branched at the 
top, each branch ending in a very small head of flowers. Fruit ovoid, 
-. covered with short, hooked prickles, and crowned by the 5 prickly teeth - 
of the calyx. Petals minute, obovate, with an inflected point. 
A genus of very few species, but widely spread over a great part of 
the globe without the tropics. They are all readily distinguished 
among irregular Umbelliferc by their burr-like fruit. 
1. S. europea, Linn. (fig. 399). Sanicle.—Rootstock short, almost 
woody. Radical leaves on long stalks, 1 to 2 inches diameter, deeply 
divided into about 5 palmate segments or lobes, each one obovate or 
wedge-shaped, dentate or lobed, the teeth ending in a fine point, and 
often ciliate at the edge ; the whole plant otherwise glabrous. Stems 
1 to 14 feet high, leafless or with small trifid leaves or bracts under 
the branches of the panicle. This usually consists of 3 short branches, 
each with a single small head of flowers, with a longer branch lower 
down the stem bearing 3 small heads, but sometimes there are more 
3-headed branches forming an irregular umbel. At the time of flowering, 
the calyx-teeth almost conceal the petals; as the fruit ripens into little 
burrs of about 2 lines, the prickles almost conceal the calyx-teeth. 
In woods, throughout Hurope except the extreme north, extending 
eastward into central Asia. Frequent in Britain. Vl. summer. 
Il]. ASTRANTIA. ASTRANTTA. 
Herbs, with a perennial rootstock, and palmately divided leaves, 
mostly radical. Umbels compact, irregularly compound, with general 
and partial involucres of several coloured bracts. Flowers often 
unisexual, Fruit ovoid or oblong, somewhat compressed laterally, 
crowned by the long pointed teeth of the calyx. Carpels with 5 plaited 
or crumpled ribs, and without vittas. 
A small genus extending over central and southern Europe to the 
Caucasus. The foliage and involucels, as well as the fruit, mark it out 
as a very distinct group in the family. 
1. A. major, Linn. (fig. 400). Larger A.—Radical leaves like those 
of Sanicula, but larger, with more pointed lobes, Stems 2 feet high or 
more, erect, with 1 or 2 leaves, smaller, and on shorter stalks than the 
radical ones. General umbel very irregular, of 3 to 5 unequal rays, the 
involucre of as many coloured and lobed or toothed bracts, with 
occasionally a bract or two below the middle of each ray. Partial 
umbels with an involucel of 15 to 20 lanceolate pointed bracts, quite 
entire, as long as or longer than the flowers, either white or tinged © 
