SWEET CICELY 161 
sometimes white, but more often of a pale purple 
or lilac hue. ‘Observe the crosslike arrangement 
of the petals. This plant is one of the Crucifere 
(cross-bearers). In wet seasons small bulbs are 
often formed at the base of the stem. 
We will not linger at the pond; we must make 
for the ‘quarry. But I see some white in the hedge- 
bank yonder, and we must see what it means. As 
I thought, we are now among the umbelliferous 
plants, which bear their flowers in an umbrella- 
like fashion. This is the Wild Beaked Parsley 
(Anthriscus sylvestris), one of the earliest of our 
umbelliferous flowers. The stem is branched and 
the branches spread out widely; there is a slight 
swelling where the branches join the stems. The 
leaves are tripinnate, and the umbels, which droop 
in the early life of the flowers, have from eight to 
ten rays. 
From whence comes that sweet smell? The sun 
is drawing out the fragrance’of the Sweet Cicely 
(Myrrhis odorata), a clump of which is growing 
hard by. The umbelliferous plants are like the 
Hawkweeds in one respect only: the amateur 
botanist finds it difficult to distinguish the various 
species. However, there is little difficulty in know- 
ing Sweet Cicely, which well deserves its name. 
It has a fragrance akin to that of Aniseed, and its 
tripinnate leaves “are blotched “with ' ‘patches* ‘of 
white, which might be mistaken for dust.” The 
fruit is large, the seeds being contained in dark 
brown seed-vessels, about an inch long and rather 
podlike in appearance. These seed-vessels are 
very fragrant, and I am told that the aromatic oil 
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