328 



THE UMBELLATE FAMILY. 



Leaves of several pairs of ovate or lanceolate toothed seg- 

 ments. Rays of the nmbel about 5 or 6 . . . . 1 . Procumbent II, 



Leaf-segments few, usually lobed or divided. Kays of the 



umbel about 3 or 4 2. Lesser H. 



1. Procumbent Helosciad. Helosciadium nodinorum, 

 Koch. (Fig. 398.) 

 (Slum, Eng. Bot. t. 639.) 



r ~*i\ Stems perennial, creeping, and rooting 

 at the base, the annual flowering branches 

 ascending or nearly erect ; attaining se- 

 veral feet in some situations, but usually 

 very much shorter, the whole plant gla- 

 brous. Leaves with 3 to 10 or more 

 pairs of ovate or lanceolate toothed seg- 

 ments. 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 w r anting, but sometimes consist- 

 ing of 3 or 4 narrow-lanceolate bracts ; 

 partial involucre of several small, lanceo- 

 late bracts. 



In marshy meadow r s, and wet ditches, 

 in western and southern Europe; scarcely 

 eastward of the Rhine in central Europe, 

 but extends nearly all round the Mediterranean. Abundant in Eng- 

 land, Ireland, and southern Scotland. Fl. summer. It varies much 

 in size and foliage ; when very luxuriant the leaf-segments are nume- 

 rous, narrow, from 1 to 1J inches long ; in half dried-up, open ditches 

 the plant is small, much branched, with 3 to 5 small, broad segments ; 

 it will then also creep much more, has the peduncles rather longer, 

 and has been considered as a distinct species (S. repens, Eng. Bot. 

 t. 1431), but both forms may be occasionally found proceeding from 

 the same stock. 



Fig. 398. 



2. Lesser Helosciad. Helosciadium inundatum, Koch. 



(Fig. 399.) 



(Sison, Eng. Bot. t. 227.) 



A glabrous plant, creeping and rooting at the base like the last, but 



much smaller, and more slender, and often half immersed in water, 



