324 



THE UMBELLATE FAMILY. 



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 occa- 

 sionally 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 or longer 

 than the flowers, either white or tinged 

 with pink. Flowers small, mostly uni- 

 sexual, the calyx-border campanulate, 

 with 5 teeth about the length of the 

 petals. 



In woods and pastures, in central and 

 southern Europe, not nearer to Britain 

 than central France. Occurs apparently 

 wild in Stokesay Wood, near Ludlow, 

 and between Whitbourne and Malvern, 

 in Herefordshire ; probably °riginally escaped from some old cottage- 

 garden. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 393. 



IV. ERYNGO. ERYJSTGIUM. 



Stiff, hard herbs, usually perennial, and with very prickly leaves 

 and involucres. Flowers in a compact spike or head, with a scale or 

 bract on the common receptacle under each flower. Petals erect, with 

 a long inflected point. Fruit ovoid, without vittas, crowned by the 

 pointed or prickly teeth of the calyx. 



A rather numerous and very natural genus, spread over the greater 

 part of the temperate and warm regions of the globe. In many species 

 the whole of the upper part of the plant as well as the flowers acquire 

 a bluish or white tint, on which account several exotic species have 

 been frequently cultivated in our gardens. 



Radical leaves rounded, the lobes plaited and toothed. Scales of 



the receptacle 3-lobed . 1. Sea ~E. 



Leaves pimiately divided, the lobes pinnatifid and toothed. Scales 



of the receptacle entire 2. Field IS. 



1. Sea Eryngo. Eryngium maritimum, Linn. (Fig. 394.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 718. Sea Holly.) 

 A stiff, erect, much branched plant, nearly a foot high, quite gla- 



