362 
41. miBELLACE^. 
St. single stiffly erect flexuosely fork-branched upwards or some- 
times quite from the base with spreading side-branches and 
bushy; branches regularly dichotomous widely divaricate and 
straggling very stiff and rigid, thickish and strongly ribbed or 
furrowed, quite smooth except a few minute muricate points or 
granulations scattered here and there. L. chiefly in a loose 
radical tuft somewhat flaccid 3-4-pinnatisect, the primary divi- 
sions opposite, lower very remote from the upper, all deeply 
channeled; ultimate segments flat oblong or linear, acute or 
cuspidate. Sheaths large and long broadly membranous pale 
whitish. Umbels inconspicuous small oppositifolious in the 
forks of the upper brandies on short stout erect furrowed stalks 
or nearly sessile not confluent, with 3 to 5 short stout unequal 
wide-spreading primary rays and about twice as many partial : 
both gen. and partial strongly angular ribbed and more or less 
muriculate. General inv. 2 or 3 ovate acuminate or broadly 
lanceolate short ; partial 5 or 6 similar but rather narrower and 
longer. FI. small inconspicuous dull w. Cal. -teeth thick fleshy 
distinct ovate acute persistent. Pet. very small broadly ob- 
ovate and notched or roundedly obcordate, with a short acute 
inflexed point. Stylopod large and tumid. Styles very short 
and thick abrupt erect approximate purplish. Stam. about as 
long as pet. ; anth. large, purplish. Fr. large, oval, the juncture 
considerably broader than the transverse diam. ; each mericarp 
with 5 primary ribs; 3 dorsal approximate with deep inter- 
stices, sharp and entire, their sides strongly and elegantly ribbed 
or plaited ; 2 lateral thicker obtuse and strongly ribbed or sul- 
cated across. Secondary ribs and vittcc 0. 
Tribe V. Thapsiece. 
12. Melaxoselinum Hoffm. 
1. M. decipiens Schrad. et Wendl. 
The only known sp. — DC. iv. 208; Novit. 20 or 542. ■Seli- 
num decipiens il Schrad. et Wendl. Sert. Hann. iii. 23. t. 13.’’ 
(DC.); Spr. i. 909. — Herb, arboriform subbiennial hapaxanthous, 
Mad. reg. 3, rr. Shady rocks and banks far up ravines in the 
north only; Kib. de S. Jorge, da Metade, do Seixal, do Inferno, 
&c. ; in the Boa Ventura abund. on a rock to the right of the 
road a little below the Lombo da Pallia; at S. Vicente on the 
perpendicular wall of rock closing the head of the little glen 
about 300 yards above the Limestone Quarry (Forno de Cal). 
May-.! illy. — Quite one of the nobles of its tribe with its tall 
simple Palm-like slender st. and terminal umbrella-like tufted 
head or crown 3 or 4 ft. in diam. of fine pale apple-gr. foliage. 
Root branched hard and woody. St. smooth simple erect 
straight round or cylindric nearly throughout and slender, but 
