188 THE UMBELLATE FAMILY. [ Buplewrum. 
Leaves broad and perfoliate. Bracts of the partial involucres 
broadly ovate ; ° ° ; : 
Leaves narrow and grasslike. 
Annuals. Rays of the umbel few, very short or incon- 
spicuous. 
Umbels of 3 or 4 short rays. Bracts lanceolate, longer 
than the flowers ; ‘ ; : ; ; : . 2 B. aristatum. 
Flowers 2 or 3 together, in little heads along the slender 
wiry stems. Bracts very small . 5 ‘ 3 . 
Perennials. Umbels of 4 to 8 rays. Bracts shorter than the 
rays ; é é Bois Rut ; 2 . 4 2B, faleatum. - 
1. B. rotugdifolium. 
3. B. tenuissimum. 
The B. fruticosum, a shrubby south European species, used formerly to 
be much planted in our shrubberies, but is now more seldom met with, 
being rather tender. | 
1, BS. rotundifolium, Linn. (fig. 417). Hare’s-ear Buplever, Hare’s- 
ear, Throw-wax.—An erect, stiff, glabrous annual, a foot or rather more 
high, and remarkable for its broadly ovate leaves; the upper ones embracing 
the stem, and joined round the back of it, so that they appear perfoliate or 
pierced through by the stem, the lowest leaves tapering to a stalk. Umbels 
terminal, of 3 to 5, or rarely 6, short rays, without any general involucre ; 
the partial involucres very much longer than the flowers, consisting of 4 to 
6 broadly ovate yellowish bracts very unequal in size, the largest about 6 
lines long. 
A cornfield weed, apparently indigenous to the Mediterranean region, 
but now widely spread over Europe and western Asia, and introduced into 
North America. Occurs not unfrequently in cornfields in chalky soils in 
eastern and southern England, but neither in Ireland nor Scotland, 7. 
with the corn. 
2, B.aristatum, Bartl. (fig. 418). Marrow Buplever.—An erect 
annual, slender but stiff, not much branched, from 2 or 3 inches to near a 
foot high. Leaves narrow-linear and grasslike, but rather stiff, 1 to 2 inches 
long. Umbels small, terminal, of 2 to 6 very short rays. Involucres of 
about 5 lanceolate, green bracts ending in a fine point; the general one 
usually longer than the rays; the partial ones rather shorter, but still far 
exceeding the flowers. 
In stony wastes, very abundant in southern Europe and eastward to 
the Caucasus, more scarce in central Europe. In Britain only in the neigh- 
bourhood of Torquay and in east Sussex, and in the Channel Islands, FY. 
summer. 
3. B. tenuissimum, Linn. (fig. 419). Slender Buplever.—A slender, 
wiry annual, either simple and nearly erect, or more frequently divided from 
the base into several decumbent or ascending branches, 6 inches to a foot 
high. Leaves few, narrow-linear and grass-like, the upper ones very short. 
Flowers in little heads of 3 or 4, nearly sessile along the upper part of the 
stem and branches, sometimes forming little irregularly compound umbels 
at the top. Involucres of a few small, linear, pointed bracts. Fruits more 
conspicuous than in the other species, and covered with little raised dots or 
granules between the ribs, 
On heaths, barren wastes, and stubbles, common in central and southern 
Europe, especially near the sea, extending eastward to the Caucasus, and 
northwards to southern Sweden. Occurs in most of the eastern and 
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