Flora Medica

APIACE^E OR UMBELLIFERjE.Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 21.ASTRANTIA.Tube of calyx with 10 plaited warted ribs, and 5 leafy teeth.Petals erect, converging, oblong-obovate, broken inwards fromthe middle into a lobe about as long as the petal. Fruit rathercompressed from the back. Half fruits without vittae, with 5raised plaited toothed inflated ridges, inclosing within theircavity smaller fistular ridges. Perennials. Root blackish.Radical leaves stalked, palmate, cauline few sessile. Generalumbel irregular of few rays, with a variable involucre, the partialregular, containing many flowers, with a many-leaved involucre.Flowers white or pink, stalked, not separated by paleae, often polygamous,the females only being fertile.67. A. major Linn. sp. 339. Nees and Eberm. pi. med.294. handb. iii. 62. Mountainous woods and meadows allover Europe.Radical leaves palmated the lobes 5, ovate-lanceolate, acute,;somewhat trifid, toothed, fringed with bristles. Bracts 15-20, linearlanceolate,entire, scarcely longer than the umbel. Roots acrid andpurgative.ERYNGIUM.Tube of the calyx rough with scales and vesicles ; teeth 5, leafy.Petals erect, converging, oblong-obovate, emarginately brokeninwards into a lobe the length of the petal. Fruit in a transv.sect, nearly taper, obovate, scaly or tuberculate, the halffruitswithout jugae or vittae ; the column completely united tothe fruit by its whole length. Herbs, usually perennial andspiny. Radical and cauline leaves more or less sheathing atthe base. Flowers collected in roundish or oblong heads. Outerbracts forming the involucre.68. E. campestre Linn. sp. 337. DC. prodr. iv. 88.Fl. dan. t. 554. N. and E. med. pi. t. 295. handb. iii. 65.Common in the dry plains of middle and southern Europe.(Eryngo.)Radical leaves long-stalked, 3-parted, stiff, with oblong spinytoothedsessile decurrent 3-lobed segments ;cauline sessile 3-partedspiny-toothed. Stem panicled. Leaflets of the involucre linear-lanceolate,pungent, entire, much longer than the hemispherical spinyheads. It sometimes varies with the lower leaves entire or nearly so.33 D