330 



THE UMBELLATE FAMILY. 



bracts, those of the partial umbels 

 smaller, and often turned to one side. 

 Fruit scarcely above a line long, rather 

 broader than long. 



In hedges and thickets, chiefly in west- 

 ern Europe, not reaching the Rhine in 

 central Europe, but spreads here and 

 there much further eastward in the Me- 

 diterranean region. In Britain, fre- 

 quent in southern England ; more rare 

 in the north, scarcely penetrating into 

 Scotland, and not recorded from Ireland. 

 Fl. summer. 



Fig. 400. 



IX. PARSLEY. PETROSELINUM. 



Leaves dissected. Umbels compound, with general and partial in- 

 volucres of very few bracts. Petals entire. Fruit of Apium, except 

 that the axis of the carpophore splits to the base when ripe. 



Two European species, not much like each other, nor yet like the 

 few exotic ones artificially associated with them. 



Tall biennial. Flowers yellow 1. Common P. 



Slender annual. Flowers white 2. Corn P. 



1. Common Parsley. Petroselinum sativum, Hoffm. 

 (Fig. 401.) 



(Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2793.) 



An erect, glabrous biennial, or sometimes lasting 3 or 4 years, 1 to " 

 2 feet high, with a thick root and stiff branches. Leaves triangular 

 in their general outline, twice pinnate ; the segments stalked, ovate, 

 lobed and toothed ; the upper leaves less divided, with narrow, often 

 linear, entire segments. Umbels all stalked, not very large, but with 

 15 to 20 or even more rays ; the general involucre consisting of 2 to 

 4 or 5 short linear bracts, the partial ones of several smaller bracts. 

 Flowers rather small, of a greenish-yellow. 



