CXCVII.— THE UPRIGHT HEDGE-PARSLEY. 
Tor ilis A nthriscus G mel i n . 
T HE Tribe Caucaline <e includes the Corianders, Cumin, Carrot, and Bur and 
Hedge Parsleys ( Caucalis and Torilis ), the last two, closely related genera. 
They have compound umbels ; both primary and secondary ridges on the carpels, 
the four secondary ones being the more prominent and prickly ; and the vittae 
solitary in the furrows between the primary ridges. 
Sir Joseph Hooker and many other botanists include the Bur-Parsleys and the 
Hedge-Parsleys in the one genus Caucalis. Its name, dating from Hippocrates, the 
“ Father of Medicine,” who was born in the island of Cos in 459 b.c., and died 
361 b.c., is said to be derived from kcco, keo, I lie down, and /cauXo?, kaulos, a stem, 
though this does not seem very appropriate. It comprises, in this widest sense, less 
than a score of species, natives of Temperate Asia, Europe, and North Africa. They 
are all annuals and hispid, with pinnate leaves, umbels usually few-rayed, and white 
or reddish flowers which are polygamous and the outer ones often radiant. There 
is a conical, lobed disk, a spinous ovoid fruit with an oil-vitta under each secondary 
ridge, and a narrow commissure. 
When, as in the authorities whom we follow here, Torilis is treated as a genus 
distinct from Caucalis , the Hedge-Parsleys from the Bur-Parsleys, the main distinc- 
tion between the two genera is that in Caucalis (in the restricted sense) the fruit 
spines are in one, two, or three rows on the secondary ridges, whilst in Torilis there 
are bristly primary ridges and numerous bristles covering the space between the 
primary ridges. It has been suggested that the name Torilis is connected either with 
7 opeva), toreuo, I carve or emboss, or with Topvo s, tomos , a round ; but neither 
etymology points clearly to any particular character. The name was, moreover, a 
coinage of the French botanist Adanson (1727-1806), who frequently makes use of 
purely meaningless combinations, so that it may have no derivation at all. Although 
the significance of a name may often serve as a useful reminder of some character 
possessed by the plant that bears it, a name is pre-eminently a mere label for 
identification, so that these arbitrary names, though uninstructive, must be accepted 
as admissible. 
The various species of this genus are rough, with close-set, rigid bristles; and 
have a branched, furrowed, and leafy stem, bipinnate leaves, narrow bracteoles, 
and white or pink-tinged flowers. 1 he flowers are nearly all perfect and have short, 
broad, acute, persistent sepals, obcordate petals with indexed points, and subulate, 
spreading, persistent styles. The thick covering of erect, appressed, rigid, subulate 
prickles on the fruit conceals the ridges. 
Our common species T. Anthriscus was so named by Charles Christopher 
Gmelin in his “ Flora Badensis-Alsatica,” published between 1805 and 1808. It was 
the Caucalis Anthriscus of Hudson, and in pre-Linnaean times had been known by 
