fectly distinct. In Carum the indexed points of the petals
are narrow and acute, whilst in Bunium they are broad and
obtuse. In other particulars the flowers and fruit of the
species before us are exactly those of the genus Carum,
whilst the fruit differs from that of B.Jlexuosum in shape
and in the number of the vittae; characters which are usually
found to distinguish genera in this natural order, but
which, if applied in the present case, would widely separate
species which clearly constitute a single and very natural
genus. Reichenbach has well observed, when speaking of
this species, that “ Natura certe Caro non junxit, quamvis
artificialis horum generum disjunctio difficilis ; ars tamen
non est natura.” This then must be considered as one of
those instances in which nature shows that she will not be
bound by our artiflcial rules, and that, however valuable a
character may be found to be in any order, we still must
not expect that it will be equally applicable even to all the
plants included in that natural group.
Bulbocastanum majus has long since been recorded as a
native of England {Ray's Syn. ed. 3. 209. Sm. FI. Brit. v.
1. 301.); but there is reason to suspect that the true plant
had never been detected in this country until the Rev. W.
H. Coleman was so fortunate as to discover it, during the
summer of 1839, growing upon arable land near Cherry
Hinton, in Cambridgeshire, at which place the specimens
now figured were gathered by the writer in the month of
June 1841, the fruit being supplied from plants of a former
year. The plant proves to be rather plentiful on the
chalky arable land above that village, and has also been
found by Mr. Coleman to extend over the whole of the
chalk district, from Bygrave, near Baldock, in Hertfordshire,
to the neighbourhood of Dunstable, a distance of
nearly twenty miles; he also states, in a letter to the writer,
that an intelligentfarmerofWeston,near Baldock,informed
him “ that it is much less common there than formerly, since
the land has been more inclosed. They turn their pigs
upon the fallows to feed upon the root, and (whether from
some deleterious quality, or because they speedily fatten
upon it) they are said to suffer from a temporary blindness
when kept too long upon it.”
The root is tuberous, varying considerably in size and
shape. Stems about two feet high, branched, nearly round,
but rather angular and striated ; their base slightly tapering,
and often curiously bent by the position in which the
tuber has been placed by the plough. Leaves dark green ;
the lower ones stalked, sometimes one or more radical, bi-
pinnate, with a triangular outline ; the leaflets pinnatifid,
with short, broadly linear, mostly obtuse segments; stalks
of the radical leaves tapering and zigzag under ground,
those of the lower stem-leaves arising from a longish, ribbed,
clasping sheath, which is bordered by a white membrane ;
upper leaves less divided, the uppermost springing at once
from their sheaths without the intervention of a footstalk.
Umbels terminating the stem and branches, flat, with from
10 to 14 rays. General and partial involucrums persistent;
their leaflets numerous, unequal, linear-lanceolate, acute,
with white membranous margins. Partial umbels many-
flowered, the inner flowers sterile. Limb of the calyx obsolete.
Petals white, almost equal, deeply obcordate, with
a broadish, linear, obtuse, inflexed lobe. Styles short in
the flower, lengthening as the fruit advances, and then reflexed.
The ripe fruit oblong, obtuse, glabrous, laterally
compressed, with 5 equal filiform ridges, of which the two
lateral are marginal; interstices flat and broad, and marked
with 3 obsolete longitudinal lines ; each interstice with only
one yitta; the commissure with two vittas. Column free,
slender, bifid in its upper part.
The radical and lower stem-leaves soon fade and fall off.
The flowers usually appear at about the middle of the month
of June, and the fruit is ripe towards the middle of July.—
C. C. B.