UMBELLIFERiE. 



357 



and less divided. Umbels not very large, 

 of 8 to 12 rays, usually without invo- 

 lucres. Fruit about 3 lines long, flat 

 and oval, with scarcely prominent ribs, 

 the vittas very conspicuous, descending 

 nearly to the base of the fruit. 



In pastures and thickets, on banks 

 and edges of fields, throughout central 

 and southern Europe, and temperate 

 Russian Asia. Frequent in England 

 and Ireland, extending at least as far 

 north as Durham. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 431. 



XXVII. HERACLEUM. HERACLEUM. 



Coarse, rough herbs, the leaves dissected with large segments. 

 Umbels compound ; the bracts few and deciduous or none. Flowers 

 white ; the outer petals of each umbel larger. Fruit flattened from 

 front to back, with a single thin border (splitting only by the separa- 

 tion of the carpels). Carpels broad, with 3 very fine, scarcely promi- 

 nent ribs ; or if 5, the 2 outside ones close to the border. Vittas single 

 to each interstice, not descending to the base of the fruit, and often 

 thickened at the lower end. 



A rather natural genus, comprising a considerable number of species, 

 from the mountains of central and southern Europe, and especially 

 central Asia, with a single North American one. Some Asiatic species, 

 remarkable for their size (the annual stems 12 to 15 feet, with umbels 

 more than a foot in diameter), are occasionally grown in our gardens. 



1. Common Heracleum. Heraeleum Sphondylium, Linn. 



(Fig. 432.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 939. Cow Parsnip or Hogweed.) 



A tall, coarse plant, although not quite so large nor so much 

 branched as the wild Angelica, and the stock of much shorter duration, 



