Hydrocotyle. XXXV. UMBELLIFERA. 179 
head, or 2 or even 3 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. FY, 
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 Umbellifere by their burr-like fruit. 
1, S. europea, Linn. (fig. 397). Wood 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 13 
feet high, leafless or with small trifid leaves or bracts under the branches 
of the panicle. This usually consists of 8 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 Europe except the extreme north, extending east- 
ward into central Asia. Frequent in Britain, 7. summer. 
Ill. ASTRANTIA. ASTRANTIA. 
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 Cau- 
casus. The foliage and involucels, as well as the fruit, mark it out asa 
very distinct group in the family. 
1, 4. major, Linn. (fig. 398). Larger Astrantia.—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 Ianceolate pointed bracts, quite entire, as long as or 
longer than the flowers, either white or tinged with pink. Flowers small, 
N 2 
