UMBELLIFERjfi. 
189 
or ovate, inflected with a frenum. Styles at first 
erect, afterwards diverging, dilated at the base. 
Mericarps with 5 equal smooth ribs, with the la- 
teral ones marginal : oil-tubes none. 
Natives of South America, distinguished from Conium 
by the form ot the petals, by the ribs not being wrinkled, 
and in not being possessed of noxious properties. IS'ame 
derived trom Arracacha the Indian name of the plant. 
1. Ar racacia esculenta. Edible Arracacha. 
Leaves pinnated, pinnae pinnatifid incised ser- 
rated with the lobes acuminate, ribs of the fruit 
obtuse. 
Coniurn Arracacha, Hook, Ex. El. 152. — Arracacia 
xanthorhiza, Bancroft, Trans. Jamaica Society . — Arra- 
cacia esculenta, DC. Prod. IV. 244. — Hooker, Bot. Mag. 
3092. 
II AB. Cultivated. 
F L. Throughout the year. 
The root, which is the valuable part of the plant, is a 
large tuber, yellow or white with a number of smaller 
tubers attached to it like fingers. These lateral tubers 
are of two kinds: those from the crown are small and 
of no value as an article of food, and might with pro- 
priety be considered as suckers, inclining upwards and 
bearing germs or shoots. The other description of tubers 
are those which arise from the main root, from 8 to 10 
in number, and descend into the ground, being larger 
than the first sort and edible. The largest of them are 
from 8 to 9 inches in length, and about 2 inches in diame- 
ter. They have a smooth surface, and are marked like 
the carrot with transverse scars. At Bogota the main- 
root is styled the madre, and the edible tubers, hijos or 
sons. 
This is a very valuable plant. The attention of Bota- 
nists was first called to it, by a paper by Senor Vargos, 
published in Konig and Sim’s Annals of Botany. In 1822 
it was imported into this Island from Bogota by the late 
Dr. Bancroft, by whom an accurate botanical account 
was published. Since that period it has continued to 
be cultivated, though never to any great extent, in our 
mountain districts. It is very productive, does not re- 
