Root perennial, woody, fibrous. Stems one or more,
erect, 1—4 feet high, alternately branched in the upper
part, striated, often flexuose and purplish. Leaves 5-
or 7-nerved, entire, slightly glaucous, and, like the
whole plant, smooth; radical ones obovate, on long stalks ;
lower stem-leaves lanceolate, also stalked ; upper linear,
sharply pointed, falcate, sessile, half embracing the stem,
and slightly decurrent. Umbel usually of 8 or 9 slender
rays. General involucrum 1—5 unequal leaves of variable
shape, sometimes entirely wanting. Partial involucrum
of 5 regular, lanceolate, sharp-pointed leaves. Flowers
golden yellow. Petals concave, obtuse, incurved, shorter
than the stamens. Germen compressed. Styles very short,
erect, their bases much dilated and depressed. Stigmas
simple. Fruit ovate, compressed.
This species is recorded as British, as I am indebted to
Mr. Forster for pointing out, by Gerarde, Parkinson, and
Merrett. Parkinson merely states it to grow in divers
parts of this land, coupling it with his B. latifolium, the
B. longifolium of Linnaeus, which is not admitted into any
modern catalogue of the British Flora. Gerarde speaks
of it, and also of B. rigidum, Linn., another species unacknowledged
at the present day as British, as growing
“ naturally” among bushes on Bieston Castle in Cheshire.
Merrett gives, “ betwixt Bromeley and Eliham, in Kent,
and at Paddington, beyond the bridge in the way to Har-
r o w -u p o n -th e -H illwhere it. is probably now lost.—
T homas C o k d e r , Jun.