THE STONE-PARSLEY— continued. 
species of Ferula, the Giant Fennels ; cling to the crevices of spray-washed rocks, like 
the Samphire ; or spring up rapidly in dry pastures, as does the Common Burnet 
Saxifrage (Pimpinella Saxifraga Linne). 
The massing of the innumerable florets into a flat-topped umbel, the frequent 
“ radiant ” enlargement of the outermost petals, and the simultaneous staminate or 
stigmatic condition of the flowers of an umbel, with their freely exposed honey, are 
adaptations, to secure, at least occasionally, cross-pollination by insect agency, as 
obvious as the adaptations of the vegetative structure. Finally, the thin pericarp 
shows a further economy of material : it is so light as to be often transported by 
wind, for which purpose too it is often winged, while its two mericarps generally 
separate to give each seed an independent chance of germination. 
The Stone-Parsley ( Sison Amotnum Linne) belongs to a genus, nearly related to 
the Parsleys ( Petroselinum ) and Caraways ( Carurn ), which only contains one or two 
species, and exhibits the typical characters of the Family with no extreme 
modification. It grows as a biennial, in damp places on calcareous soil, chiefly in 
the south of England, its distribution beyond our island being distinctly West 
European. It is doubtful how far either of its scientific names originally belong to 
it, Sison — used for it and other plants by Dioscorides — being said to be derived 
from a Celtic word signifying a running brook, and Amomum being applied by Pliny 
to some plant which certainly was not this species. The latter name, now used 
generically for a group of plants, related to the Gingers, which bear the aromatic 
fruits known as Cardamoms, may have reference to the little globular Coriander- 
like fruits of this plant, which, when ripe, are pungent and aromatic. The whole 
plant, when green, has a peculiarly nauseous smell, especially if bruised ; but these 
ripe fruits were formerly used medicinally, especially in the treatment of a hard 
swelling in the cheek known as a “ hone.” Perhaps, however, the true remedy 
was the allied and similar Petroselinum segetum Koch, which is known in books as 
Corn Honewort, Sison being called Hedge Honewort. 
The most distinctive features of Sison are its slender, rigid, divergent branches ; 
its simply pinnate lower leaves of five to nine leaflets ; its compound umbels with 
few primary rays of irregular length, and from two to four thread-like bracts and as 
many bracteoles ; the minute blossoms with deeply bilobed cream-coloured petals ; 
and the ribbed globular fruit with short club-shaped oil-vittas, solitary in each furrow. 
As for Stone-Parsley, Lyte’s name for the plant would seem to be an 
inappropriate pleonasm, since Parsley is merely -neTpocreXivov, petroselinon, a rock 
umbellifer, and Sison is not a rock-plant. 
