ORNAMENTAL UMBELLIFEROUS PLANTS. 



77 



cimens on a nicely-kept lawn. Though of large size, they have 

 no coarseness in their appearance, the stem being tapering, and 

 though 8 or 10 feet high, not more than 1^ inch in diameter at 

 the base, the leaves cut into an infinity of small segments, and 

 the whole surface either polished or covered with a glaucous 

 bloom. These plants moreover possess a strong recommendation 

 in the fact, that their leaves begin to grow in autumn, and con- 

 tinue to advance during all the favourable intervals of winter, so 

 that by the time spring has come, they are in full leaf. Like all 

 herbs that have very large enduring leaves, they do not produce 

 many in number, but the foliage forms a semi-hemispherical mass 

 of 2 feet in height, lying close to the ground, which it densely 

 covers for a space of some 2 yards in diameter. In this habit, 

 both the species mentioned above agree, as they do also in pro- 

 ducing a flower-stem of 8 or 10 feet in height, numerously fur- 

 nished in the upper half with umbels of yellow flowers, the prin- 

 cipal umbels each measuring from 4 to 6 inches in diameter. 

 They come into flower towards the end of June, and last a long 

 time in bloom, during which period the yellow masses are con- 

 spicuous : they continue to have an interesting appearance until 

 the seeds are nearly ripe. The leaves are in both species many 

 times divided, or, as it is called, supra-decompound. 



Ferula tingitana, the Tangier Fennel, has the leaves divided 

 into several pairs of arms, in a pinnate manner, and these are 

 again and again divided, so that the leaf is made up of little 

 segments of from half an inch to an inch in length, of an ovate or 

 oblong lance-shaped form, deeply cut and more or less toothed, the 

 surface shining as if polished. The lower pair of arms grows pro- 

 portionately larger than the rest, and is often upwards of a foot 

 long. One of the lower branches of a small leaf, now before me, 

 just gathered (Nov. 29), has upwards of sixty of the small jagged 

 leaflets, though it measures no more than 8 inches in length. 

 The appearance of the immense tuft formed by the full-grown 

 foliage, the innumerable shining leaflets hanging in varied curves, 

 and glistening in the light-beams, is very pleasing, even when 

 the majestic flower-stalk is absent. The latter, too, in every stage 

 of its progress is curious and interesting — at first from the man- 

 ner in which the inflated powdery petioles of the stem leaves 

 ensheath the growing point, and become in turn unfolded ; and, 

 finally, from the numerous branching umbel-bearing arms, a foot 

 or more in length, diverging from the stem in each direction, and 

 ornamenting the upper 4 feet of its height with large heads of 

 yellow blossoms, which, though individually simple, are conspi- 

 cuous in the mass. 



Ferula glauca^ with the stature, habit, and general character- 

 istics of the last, has altogether a different appearance in conse- 



