716  Anatomy  of  Umbelliferous  Fruits.  {^ovember^gTg' 
epidermal  cells  are  contained  yellow  flakes  and  crystals,  often  plume- 
shaped,  which  are  readily  soluble  in  KOH  with  a  yellow  color,  but 
insoluble  in  chloral,  alcohol,  water  and  glycerin. 
Levisticum  officinale  Koch. — The  habitat  of  this  species,  com- 
monly known  as  "  Lovage,"  is  unknown,  apparently  Southern 
Europe ;  moreover,  it  is  doubtlessly  unknown  as  growing  wild.  It 
is  cultivated  in  large  quantities  in  the  province  of  Sachsen,  in  Thiir- 
ingen,  Holland  and  France,  and  considerably  in  the  garden  as  a 
cooking  aromatic. 
The  fruits  are  quite  scissile,  the  schizocarp  up  to  7  Mm.  long,  3.5 
Mm.  broad  and  1.2  Mm.  deep,  yellow  to  dark  brown,  mostly  straight, 
seldom  only  slightly  bent,  ovate-oblong,  crowned  with  the  broad 
stylar  cushion  and  at  times  also  with  the  bent  style.  The  ribs  are 
small  and  project  strongly  outward.  Under  a  hand  lens,  the  some- 
what dorsally  compressed  mericarp  is  stretched,  on  the  commissural 
surface,  almost  straight.  All  the  ribs  are  strongly  marked ;  the 
border  ribs  are  wing-like,  the  latero-dorsal  ribs  are  moved  toward 
the  midrib,  so  that  both  sides  of  the  section  appear  only  very  slightly 
concave.  There  is  a  vitta  in  the  tissue  between  each  two  ribs  on  the 
dorsal  side.  The  commissural  side  shows  two  vittae.  The  endo- 
sperm is  oval  and  shows  a  slight  concavity  on  either  side  of  the 
raphe. 
Under  the  microscope,  the  outer  margin  of  the  fruit  is  composed 
of  proportionately  large,  quadratic  or,  in  part,  of  somewhat  higher 
than  broad  epidermal  cells  whose  outer  membrane  is  very  finely 
warty.  The  endocarp  cells  are  small  and  elongated.  The  whole 
mesocarp  is  composed  of  thin-walled,  hollow  and  large-celled  paren- 
chyma. The  fibrovascular  bundles  occupy  the  middle  region  of  the 
ribs  and  are  especially  thickened  toward  the  outer  and  inner  epi- 
dermis. The  few  spiral  tracheae  are  accompanied  by  long-pointed, 
narrow-lumened  and  obliquely  punctated  bast  fibers.  Bordering  the 
inner  epidermis  lie  the  secretion  reservoirs  (vittse)  of  elongated  oval 
form,  135  ix  long  and  30^  broad.  The  commissural  vittae  are 
generally  somewhat  smaller.  The  dorsal  vittae  can  attain  a  length  of 
195  fx.  The  outer  part  of  the  testa  is  alone  well  kept  and  show 
slightly  tangentially  elongated  right-angled  cells.  The  inner  seed 
coat  is  collapsed.  The  nourishing  tissue  is  uniformly  slightly  thick- 
ened and  contains  fixed  oil  and  aleurone. 
