332 



THE UMBELLATE FAMILY. 



X. TRINIA. TKINIA. 



Leaves dissected. Umbels compound, without involucres, or with 

 a single bract. Flowers dioecious. Petals entire, with an inflected 

 point. Fruit short, somewhat laterally compressed, without visible 

 calycine teeth. Carpels ovoid, with 5 prominent ribs, and single vittas, 

 under or within the ribs themselves, not under the interstices, as in 

 most Umbellates. 



A very small genus, chiefly south European and west Asiatic, with 

 a peculiar habit, and differing from Apium chiefly in the dioecious 

 flowers, and the position of the vittas of the fruit. 



1. Common Trinia. Trinia vulgaris, DC. (Fig. 103.) 



{Pimpinella dioica, Eng. Bot. t. 1209.) 



Stock perennial, short and thick, al- 

 most woody, forming a tap-root at its 

 base. Stems annual, erect, stiff and 

 angular, with numerous spreading 

 branches, 6 inches to near a foot high, 

 the whole plant glabrous, with a glau- 

 cous hue. Leaves finely cut into stiff, 

 narrow-linear or subulate segments ; the 

 radical ones twice pinnate, with ternate, 

 entire segments, 3 to 6 lines long, the 

 upper ones twice or only once ternate. 

 Umbels small and numerous, on slender 

 peduncles, forming a loose panicle, each 

 with 4 to 6 rays. Flowers white, the 

 males with much narrower petals than 

 ^' ' ' the females. 



In dry, arid, and stony wastes, chiefly in limestone districts, in west- 

 ern and southern Europe to the Caucasus, scarcely extending into 

 central Germany. Rare in Britain, and confined to the south-western 

 counties of England and to southern Ireland. Fl. spring or early 



XI. GOUTWEED. iEGOPODIUM. 



Leaves dissected 1 . Umbels compound, without any involucres. 

 Petals broad, notched, with an inflected point. Fruit ovoid-oblong, 



