Contum. | XXXV. UMBELLIFERZ. 203 
partial ones almost always 3, turned to the outside of the umbel. Fruit 
about 2 lines long. 
On the banks of streams, along hedges, and the borders of fields, etc., 
widely spread over Europe and temperate Asia, though not always common. 
Generally distributed over Britain. £7. summer. 
Ce 
XXXIV. PHYSOSPERMUM. PHYSOSPERM. 
Leaves dissected. Umbels compound, with general and partial involucres. 
Flowers white. Fruit 2-lobed, the carpels nearly globular, and attached by 
a narrow edge, each with 5 scarcely visible rays, and single vittas to the 
interstices. Albumen with a longitudinal furrow on the inner face. 
A genus of very few species, from Hurope and temperate Asia. 
1, P.cornubiense, D.C., (fig. 452).—Cornish Physosperm.—Stock 
perennial. Stem erect, almost leafless, 14 to 2 feet high, slightly branched. 
Radical leaves on long stalks, twice or thrice ternate; the segments ovate 
or cuneate, and deeply cut. Umbels terminal, of 10 to 12 rays, with rather 
large, white flowers. Involucres, both general and partial, of very few 
linear bracts. The fruits have the appearance of two little smooth bladders 
placed face to face, with a loose seed in each. 
A mountain plant, occurring here and there along the great European 
chain from the Asturias to the Caucasus, and reappearing in a few very 
limited localities in Cornwall and Devonshire. Fl. late in summer. The 
Continental plant is by some botanists considered as a distinct species from 
the British one, but the characters appear to have been derived et the 
examination of ‘single specimens. 
XXXV. SMYRNIUM. SMYRNIUM. 
Leaves entire or dissected. Umbels compound, either without involucre. 
or only a very few small bracts. Flowers yellow. Fruit 2-lobed ; the car- 
pels ovoid, attached by the very narrow face, each with 3 prominent- 
angular ribs, and several vittas under the interstices. Albumen with a 
longitudinal furrow on the inner face. 
A genus of very few species, from the Mediterranean region and western 
Asia. 
1, S. Olusatrum, Linn, (fig. 453). Common Smyrnium, Alexanders. 
—A coarse, erect annual or biennial, 2 to 4 feet high, and nearly glabrous. 
Lower leaves twice or thrice, upper ones but once ternate; the segments, 
broadly ovate, coarsely toothed or 3-lobed, 2 or more inches long and broad, 
and often of a yellowish-green. Umbels terminal of 8 to12 rays. Flowers 
of a greenish-yellow, much crowded in the partial umbels. As the fruit 
ripens, the peduncles are often much thickened under the umbels. Carpels 
above 3 lines long, very angular. | 
In meadows and waste places, especially near the sea, all round the 
Mediterranean and up western Europe to the English Channel. Probably 
really indigenous in several of the maritime counties of southern England 
and Ireland, and, having been formerly much cultivated, has spread into 
many inland parts of England and southern Scotland, in the vicinity of old 
castles and gardens. 1. spring and early summer. 
