392 PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Smybnium. 
Garden Parsnep. Retzius remarks that the cultivated garden Parsnep 
has wing-cleft leafits, furnished with ear-like appendages, and that it is 
either hairy or smooth.* 
SMYRNIUM.f Petals keeled, acuminate : Fruit egg-globular, 
gibbous, angular with ribs, (flattened. E.) 
S. olusa'trum. Stem-leaves ternate, on leaf-stalks: serrated. 
Dicks. H. S. — E. Bot. 230— Ger. 864. 2— Trag. 436— Lome. i. 237. 2— 
Blackw. 408 —J. B. iii. 2. 126— Dod. 698. 1 —Lob. i. 708. 2— Ger. Em. 
1019— Park. 1930. 1— Pet. 24. 1— H. Ox. ix. 4, row 2. n. 1 .Jig. 3d. 
Root-leaves thrice ternate, stein-leaves ternate; the upper ones opposite, 
three on a leaf-stalk. Sheaths of the leaves ragged and fringed. Involu - 
cellum very short. Central florets barren. Linn. Whole plant small, 
smooth, pale green, often of a sickly yellowish cast. Flowers greenish 
yellow. ( Stems three or four feet high. Umbels large, globose, strong, 
many-rayed. Fruit nearly black, large. Plant rather succulent. E.) 
Alexanders. (Irish: Alistrin. Welsh: Dulys cyffredin. E.) Ditches 
and rocks on the sea-coast. About Scarborough and Nottingham Castles ; 
Deptford, Battersea, and Vauxhall: (Sea-shore below the old castle of 
Ravensheugh, between Dysart and Kirkcaldy. Dr. Walker. Grev. 
Edin. Beaumaris, AberfFraw, and almost covers the south-west end 
of Priestholm island. Rev. Hugh Davies. E.) Bungay. Mr. Wood¬ 
ward. Under the walls of York. Mr. Wood. Between Great Comber- 
ton and Wollershill, under hedges near the Avon, Worcestershire. Nash 
Found by the Rev. Mr. Welles at Hill Croome, Worcestershire. Mr. 
Ballard. Very common in all the western counties, and also in the 
flat parts of Gloucestershire. (In the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle, and 
close to the town of Newcastle, Northumberland. Mr. Winch. In 
ditches about Badsey, near Evesham. Purton. A principal produce 
of the Steep Holmes Island, in the Severn; and worthy the attention of 
mariners. E.) 
B. May—June.J 
* The roots when cultivated are sweeter than carrots, and are much used by those who 
abstain from animal food during Lent: they are highly nutritious, (and yield a considerable 
portion of saccharine matter. E.) In the north of Ireland they are brewed, instead of 
malt, with hops, and fermented with yeast. The liquor thus obtained is agreeable. The 
seeds contain an essential oil, and will often cure intermittent fevers. Hogs are fond of 
the roots, and quickly grow fat when fed on them. (As fodder for cattle during the winter 
season, they supply a good produce, but are somewhat troublesome to cultivate, and difficult 
to take out of the ground. Salisbury. In Brittany these esculent roots have been very 
long used, and are highly esteemed as winter food for all kinds of cattle. E.) 
F (From c/Avpvct, Myrrh ; the root smelling like that aromatic. E.) 
J It was formerly cultivated in gardens, (and has roots externally black, whence the 
specific name Olus-atrum or Black Potherb. E.) but its place is now better supplied by 
celery. It is boiled and greedily eaten by sailors returning from long voyages, who happen 
to land at the south-west corner of Anglesey. Pennant. (That it was really a good thing 
may be safely inferred from its still being found outside old abbey walls : and since 
indications of the “ tempora mutantur ” are sufficiently obvious, we are almost prepared to 
expect that, in the course of a liberalizing age, it may resume the ascendancy, and be re¬ 
admitted to its more favoured position. E.) 
