Flora Medica

APIACEJE OR UMBELLIFER.S;.PEUCEDANUM.Calyx a 5-toothed margin. Petals obovate, contracted intoan inflexed segment, emarginate or nearly entire. Fruit flattenedat the back, surrounded by a dilated flat border. Halffruitswith equi-distant ridges ; the 3 dorsal filiform, the lateralmore obsolete, next the dilated border, or lost in it. Vittaesingle in the channels, or in the lateral ones 1| to 2 ; usually 2on the commissure. Perennials generally smooth. Leavespinnated, more or less compound. Umbels compound, terminal.Involucre variable ; involucels many-leaved. Flowerswhite, yellow, or yellowish-green.104. P. officinale Linn. sp. 353. DC.prodr. iv. 177. Eng.Sot. t. 1767. N. and E. handb. iii. 39. Meadows and shadyplaces throughout Europe. (Sulphur wort, Hog's fennel.)Herb smooth, 3 or 4 feet high, with a resinous juice, and a strongsulphureous smell. Leaves 4 or even 5 times ternate with linearlanceolateacuminate flaccid segments. Umbels sometimes slightly proliferous;the general with about 20 rays and an involucre of 3 deciduoussetaceous bracts ;the partial extremely unequal, many of the flowersabortive, and an involucre of many permanent setaceous bracts. Fruit2J lines long, oblong, emarginate at each end, pale light brown, the vittaedeep chocolate colour, the primary ridges much depressed and paler, thelateral resembling deep furrows between them and the dilated margin.Commissure light fawn colour, with two crimson vittae very conspicuousupon it. Juice of the root inspissated in the sun, or before a fire, isreputed antispasmodic 'and diuretic.105. P. Oreoselinum Monch. meth. 82. iv.DC.prodr. 180.Nees and Eberm. pi. med. t. 291. handb. iii. 41. AthamantaOreoselinum Linn. sp. pi. 352.Jacq.fl. austr. 68. Openhills of the middle of Europe and the Caucasus.Stem taper striated. Leaves tripinnate with the petioles brokenback ; segments remote, ovate, cut, pinnatifid, divaricating, shining,nearly pointless. Fruit roundish-oval. The leaves and stem (HerbaOreoselini Officin.) are bitter and aromatic, as is the fruit but in ahigher degree. They were used as powerful stimulants of the intestinalcanal, and are still esteemed in some countries.106. P. montanum Koch. umb. 94. DC.prodr.iv. 180. N. andE. handb. iii. 40. Selinum palustre Linn. sp. 350. Eng. Sot.t. 229. Smith ii.Eng. fl.98. Marshes and boggy meadows inthe north and middle of Europe.Root tapering, simple, with many long fibres. Stem erect, 4 or 5feet high, hollow, deeply furrowed, not hairy, branched and corymbosein the upper part, bright purple at the base. Leaves about 5 or 6 on thestem, alternate, remote, ternate with bipinnate divisions ;leafletsopposite, deeply pinnatifid, dark green, smooth, their segments linearlanceolate,never quite linear, acute, entire or trifid ; petioles striated,smooth, dilated and sheathing at the base, with a reddish membranousmargin. Umbels large, horizontal, of numerous, angular, general andpartial rays. General bracts several, lanceolate, pointed, dependent,48