Apium.] XXXV. UMBELLIFER^. 181 



Fl. summer. The Celery of our gardens is a cultivated variety, in which 

 the leafstalk and base of the stem acquire a considerable size. 



2. A. nodiflorum, Reichb. (fig. 405). Procumbent Apium. — Stems 

 perennial, creeping and rooting at the base, the annual flowering 

 branches ascending or nearly erect ; attaining several feet in some 

 situations, but usually very much shorter, the whole plant glabrous. 

 Leaves with 3 or 10 or more pairs of ovate or lanceolate toothed 

 segments. Umbels nearly sessile or on short peduncles, either opposite 

 to the leaves or between the upper branches, each with 5 or 6, or rarely 

 as many as 8 or as few as 4 rays. General involucre usually 0, but 

 sometimes consisting of 3 or 4 narrow-lanceolate bracts ; partial invo- 

 lucre of several small, lanceolate bracts. 



In marshy meadows and wet ditches, in western and southern 

 Europe ; scarcely eastward of the Rhine, but extends nearly all round 

 the Mediterranean. Abundant in England, Ireland, and southern 

 Scotland. FL summer. It varies much in size and foliage ; when very 

 luxuriant the leaf -segments are numerous, narrow, from 1 to 1| inches 

 long ; in half dried -up open ditches the plant is small, much branched, 

 with 3 to 5 small, broad segments ; it then also creeps much more, has 

 the peduncles rather longer, and has been considered as a distinct species , 

 (S. repens, Koch.), but both forms may be occasionally found proceeding 

 from the same stock. [A. ochneatum, DC, is a dwarf creeping form with 

 small obtuse leaflets, and 1 to 3 bracts, found in Surrey.] 



3. A. inundatum, Reichb. (fig. 406), Lesser A. — A glabrous plant, 

 creeping and rooting at the base like the last, but much smaller and 

 more slender, and often half -immersed in water, when the submerged 

 leaves are divided into capillary segments. Flowering stems 6 to 8 

 inches high, with small ternate or pinnate leaves ; the segments 3- 

 toothed or 3-lobed, each lobe again often 3-toothed. Umbels on short 

 peduncles opposite the leaves, as in A. nodiflorum, but generally of 2 or 

 3 rays only, without involucre ; the partial umbels of 5 or 6 small 

 flowers, with 2 or 3 minute bracts. 



In swamps, shallow ponds and pools, or half-dried mud, chiefly in 

 western and central Europe, extending northwards into southern Sweden, 

 eastwards almost to the Asiatic frontier, but rare in the south. Gene- 

 rally dispersed over Britain, but easily overlooked, and consequently 

 supposed to be more rare than is the fact. Fl. summer. 



VII. SISON. SISON. 



Leaves dissected. Umbels compound, with general and partial 

 involucres. Petals broad, deeply notched, with an inflected point. 

 Fruit of Apium, except that the axis or carpophore is deeply cleft, as in 

 Carum, and the vittas are slightly thickened at the lower end. 



A single species, formerly considered as a congener of Carum segetum. 



1. S. Amomum, Linn. (fig. 407). Hedge Sison, Bastard Stone Parsley. 

 — An erect, glabrous annual or biennial, 2 feet high or rather more, with 

 numerous stiff, slender branches in the upper part. Leaves pinnate ; 

 the segments of the lower ones ovate or oblong, often an inch long, 

 toothed or lobed, or the lower pair again pinnate ; the upper leaves 

 much smaller, with small, narrow segments, deeply 3-lobed, toothed or 

 entire. Umbels on slender peduncles, of 3 to 5 rays, with but few white 



